


[ERROR 404: TITLE NOT FOUND]

by h311agay



Category: Borderlands (Video Games), Tales From the Borderlands (Telltale Video Game)
Genre: Canon Divergent, Canon Typical Violence, Emotional Relationship, M/M, Multi, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-19
Updated: 2020-04-11
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:55:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 26,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23207338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/h311agay/pseuds/h311agay
Summary: [To be read in Marcus' voice]:"So you want to hear a story, eh? A story full of excitement, adventure, betrayal? Or how about a story about romance? All of the above? Alright, then, strap in for the ride, kids. This is a story about Rhys Strongfork, a Hyperion middle man with aspirations reaching the glass ceiling. Then one day, thanks to the help of an ID drive that he plugged into his head, the glass ceiling was shattered. Within the ID drive was an AI copycat of none other than Handsome Jack, notorious Hyperion ruler, who reigned with a fiery temper and fist. He offered greatness, riches, and power, tantalizing prospects to the salesman that he could not dare say no to. But little did he know, there was more to his story than sitting on the throne of Hyperion.""This is the story of the disappearance of Handsome Jack, and the Rise of Rhys."[ON HIATUS WHILE I WORK ON MY UNAPOLOGETICALLY QUEER SERIES]
Relationships: Fiona & Rhys (Borderlands), Handsome Jack/Rhys (Borderlands), Rhys & Vaughn (Borderlands), Rhys & Yvette (Borderlands), Rhys & Zer0 (Borderlands)
Comments: 24
Kudos: 23





	1. PRAZMA CANON

**Author's Note:**

> https://play.google.com/music/playlist/AMaBXylsZyFz-ZpV1Whi6RM22HnWD3yMIyEpjbUMazflFZspnFPBW8Btovn4O48M7VG_FDhOeTiv9Iay0waaw6s5H3RT9gMt8A%3D%3D
> 
> This is a link to an ever growing playlist I am creating for this pairing and for the mood of this story. I add to it occasionally and am open to recommendations, so please feel free to drop some down in the comments I'd youd like.

_ “But you could succeed where I failed. Use our power to make things right, Rhys. But say,”  _ Jack continued, leaning forward toward Rhys, “ _ we shared the power I had when I sat in this room. What would you do with it?” _

Rhys was stunned into silence, eyes open wide.

“ _ So,” _ Jack pushed, “ _ If we could wield Hyperion’s might together, how would you rule? Hypothetical, of course. But still, you gotta know what you want if you’re gonna make it, kid. _ ”

Rhys remained quiet, processing Jack’s words, the conflict going on inside of him evident on his face.

“ _ Like I told you after we escaped Old Haven. Remember? _ ”

“I’d fix Pandora. There’s some good people down there -- and they deserve better than a world full of psychos.”

“ _ Yeah, _ ” Jack chuckled darkly. “ _ That’s what I wanted, but, hell, maybe you’ll pull it off. Who knows. You’ve done well so far, kid. _ ” A serious look crossed his face as he looked down. “ _ But imagine, Rhys, _ ” he said as he began to stand, “ _ if it wasn’t hypothetical. You ever wonder why Nakayama created me? This whole AI thing? I was supposed to find a worthy successor to the Hyperion throne. _ ” He had begun to pace back and forth as Rhys continued to sit, silent, in Jack’s old chair. “ _ The successor, Rhys, is you. If you join me, we can rule together. What do you say, kid? _ ”

“ _ This is the only room with the override port, so if you don’t jack in now, you’ll never get another shot.” _

Rhys’ heart skipped a beat, yet he was already answering the questions, “Yes.”

“ _ Yeah? _ ”

“Yeah, let’s do it!”

The relief that flooded Jack’s face wasn’t missed by Rhys. It was the most vulnerable look he had caught from the other yet. “ _ Yes! You…! You… are my favourite dude! _ ”

Rhys felt pretty satisfied with that compliment. He leaned back in the chair, a slightly smug grin on his face. “So what’s next?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I usually don't do things like this, but with a pairing like this, I can't resist sharing. I am in no way being coerced or paid to promote this fic, I was just so genuinely engaged and engrossed by the story. The characterization and unique story line, coupled with amazing literary skills and engaging storytelling makes this fic stand out. I swear by it. It's better than anything I could have hoped to write about this pairing. https://archiveofourown.org/works/3953485/chapters/8864386
> 
> Rating: Explicit


	2. bombabarbardeer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You know what? Right now, I don’t care about Pandora. I care that you found it so easy to just buddy up with the bad guy.”
> 
> “Jack isn’t the bad guy here, Sasha.”
> 
> She turned to look at him, her glare cold and unforgiving. “Handsome Jack will always be the bad guy, Rhys."

It appeared that what ‘next’ had been was a dramatic introduction throughout all of Helios by Jack. Despite the grandeur of his speech, Rhys was in shock. “Wait, so… this is… actually mine? This- this is… mine to control.”

“ _Take it in, Rhys! Hyperion, Pandora, Elpis…” He chuckled. “They are just the start. We’ll rule this entire freakin’ universe! You and me, kiddo! President Rhys and Handsome goddamned Jack!_ ” Rhys was looking out of the giant windows, down to Pandora, with what he could only describe as exhilaration coursing through his body. 

“ _This is a perfect partnership, Rhys. You trusted me, I trusted you, and now we’re here! Man -- never really had a partner I could count on before. Feels kinda dope,”_ his voice softened as he spoke. After a slight pause, he jumped right back into business, and Rhys had to suppress a smile. _“But enough talkin’, am I right? It’s time for you to make your first command as_ _President Rhys. You gotta project power, you gotta project vision, but you can also wanna convince the toadies that you care about ‘em. That’s important.”_

Rhys turned to face Jack’s screen, raising his eyebrows. “How exactly do I do that?”

 _“You’re going to have to start reviewing a whole hell of a lot of data. Christ, with the whole Vault Key and GORTYS thing goin’ on, Wallethead being on Pandora -- sheesh.”_ Jack rolled his eyes, _“Rhys, we have a hell of a job ahead of us. I’m pulling up some files now, check the computer at the desk, you can see what I’m looking at.”_

Rhys sat back in the chair and started up the computer. Once running, files started popping up on the screen, and off to the side of the monitor a ‘To Do’ list appeared. The life of a President wasn’t all glamour after all, he supposed. “ _Alright_ ,” Jack said, _“I reviewed a few things, ran some numbers -- damn this whole being hooked up into the Helios network is great,”_ he said offhandedly, _“I shoulda done this ages ago. Anyways,”_ he cleared his throat, _“We have a few options to start with. We could go balls to the walls, shoot a moon beam at some bandit camp that’s been giving Prosperity Junction problems for a while; also there’s some major embezzlement goin’ on in Accounting right now, sheesh. We should scrap the whole department and start over at this point, seems you and your super swole friend weren’t the only people moving money around.”_

“Yeah, corruption does seem to be a running theme among Hyperion.”

Jack laughed. _“C’mon, Rhysie. What fun is being a corporate overlord if there aren’t some weeds to be rooted out? Third option is that we can order pizza for the entire station.”_

“Pizza?”

_“Uh, yeah? Everyone loves pizza, kid.”_

“As, uh, delicious as the third option sounds, I feel like buying everyone pizza shouldn’t be my first order of business. The Accounting issue seems the most important. We should escort them off the station immediately and set to finding a new head of Accounting.”

_“Don’t worry about escorting them out, kid. I’ll just vent them --”_

“No!” Rhys interrupted. “No,” he said, a little calmer. “There will be no venting people out into space. Actually, Jack, I really think we should discuss your permissions.”

 _“My… permissions?”_ He sounded incredulous. _“What do you mean_ my _permissions? I built this freakin’ place! This is my domain,_ my _kingdom. Not yours. You’re only here because I l--”_

“Because you _needed_ me,” Rhys said, interrupting again. “And you still need me. If Athena finds out you’re alive and running _Hyperion_ , she’ll be here to kill you before we can even start planning a course of action. So you _cannot_ just start acting out and being irrational. We fire the Accounting team, _escort_ them off the premises, and then start looking to fill their roles.”

Jack was quiet, but there was a simmering rage in his eyes, and if it weren’t for the fact he was stuck on a computer screen, Rhys might actually have been scared. “I’m going to run things differently, Jack. You were one of the _greatest_ leaders in history, but you died. And… I personally think it was because you were a little too hot headed.”

 _“Me? Hot headed?”_ He scoffed, but his jaw was tense. _“Rhys, you’re really walking a fine line here. Trying to compliment me or trying to piss me off? Just pick one.”_

“I’m trying to talk some sense into you. Just have some patience okay? I promise I won’t let you down, but I need you to give me the chance to prove that… that I really am worthy to inherit this company.”

The rage on Jack’s face slowly dissipated before he sighed. _“Alright, kid. Show me what you got.”_

“Than--” Rhys’ ‘thanks’ was interrupted by Fiona’s voice coming in over the earpiece he had forgotten he was wearing.

_‘Rhys? Do you want to explain what the hell is going on?’_

He pressed his finger to the earpiece, “Yeah, sorry. Sorry, it just got complicated is all. I’ll be right down.”

 _‘Yeah, we heard the speech,’_ Sasha’s voice replied, sounding unimpressed. Hurt.

Rhys made his way down to the cells, trying not to barf as he descended. He landed on the gory ground, shuddering some as he wiped old blood on his slacks. Gortys rolled up to him, cheerful as always. “Rhys! You’re the President now? Congratulations!”

“Heh,” Rhys awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck as Sasha and Fiona turned the corner, frowning. “Thanks, Gortys.”

Sasha walked up to Rhys and punched him in the face. Rhys grunted and stumbled back some, then groaned as he started to rub his cheek. “Christ, Sasha, what -- what was that for?”

“Wh-what was that for?!” Her voice sounded half hysterical. “Just when I thought I could _trust_ you, you go and do something like -- something like this! President of _Hyperion_ ? I thought you were better than that,” her voice had gone from angry to disappointed, as did her body language. “Handsome _Jack_? Do you really trust him, Rhys?”

He paused for a moment, weighing his response. “Yes. I do.” He saw the pain flash through her eyes, and she stepped back, eyes going to the ground. “Sasha --”

“Don’t talk to me,” she snapped, before walking back around the corner.

Rhys’ heart was pounding wildly, and he was so distracted by staring painfully at the spot Sasha had been that he hardly noticed Fiona approach him. It wasn’t until she shoved him that he snapped out of it. “Stop, don’t you start, too,” he snapped, stepping away from her as she reached toward him again.

“You--” she seethed, seemingly so angry she couldn’t form words. “You, you son of a _bitch_. This was all -- this was all about Hyperion, wasn’t it? This is what you wanted from the start, huh? The only reason you stuck around and dragged us down?”

“Why do you two assume the worst about me?” He was getting genuinely angry now.

“Why shouldn’t we? You’re nothing but a Hyperion stooge! That’s all you’ve ever been, and now you get to be the crummiest stooge of them all. Congratu-fuckin’-lations,” she spat at him. “Give me the Gortys piece, we’re going.”

“No.” He said firmly.

“What?”

“I said no. You don’t get to stand there and insult me, then expect me to hand over Gorty’s piece so you can go summon that Vault without me. I worked _just_ as hard as you during this, if not _more_ . I’m the one who came up with the plan, I’m the one who found the last piece, I’m the one who _got_ the last piece. I _deserve_ this, Fiona, and like hell I’m going to stand here and let you berate me in my own freakin’ space station.”

“Oh, and what’re you gonna do about it,” she said, mocking him. “Vent me out to space like your buddy Jack would probably do?”

He smacked himself in the forehead with his organic arm. “For the love of -- Fiona, I’m not suddenly some mass murdering psycho just because I became Hyperion President. Why are you acting like I’m suddenly not _me_ , anymore?”

She didn’t have a retort to that, just looked away from Rhys, her face showing the same hurt as Sasha’s. “We trusted you Rhys.”

“You can still trust me. This has bought us a new opportunity. To get away from Vallory. We’re up in the freakin’ Helios space station, and I _own_ it. We get those goons of hers out of here, or even lock them up, we’re golden. We can take the time to figure out what’s really going on with this Vault of the Traveler and open it when we’re ready.”

“When we’re ready, or when Hyperion is ready?”

He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Fiona, please. I’m _trying_ to help us. I’m not going to turn on you. With the resources at my disposal now, we can make sure that we can beat whatever monster is in that Vault. We can make sure we come out on top, Fiona. This isn’t for Hyperion, this is for us. We’re going to open that Vault, together.”

She looked skeptical, but the anger had diminished some. “Fine. But if I think you’re hiding anything from us, I’ll kick your ass.”

“I don’t doubt you,” he said, holding his hands up as a sign of peace. “Friends?” He held out his hand for a handshake, giving her a hopeful look.. She hesitated for a moment before taking his hand and giving him a sardonic smile.

“Temporary alliance,” she corrected him. “I call it like it is.”

Rhys sighed, “Can you try and talk to Sasha about this? I don’t think she’ll be receptive to me.”

“I’ll do my best, but no promises.”

Rhys followed Fiona into the cell area and was surprised to see Yvette and a few other Hyperion employees locked in one. “Yvette?”

“Rhys, oh my god, Rhys. You have no idea how nice it is to see you,” she said. He frowned and turned his head away from her.

“Yeah? Is that why you tried to have me killed?”

“It’s not what you think. Vasquez knew about a bunch of money I embezzled. He was going to rat me out. I tried to keep him off your trail as much as I could.”

“Right.”

“Rhys, you believe me, don’t you?” Rhys looked at her, frowning and a feeling of apathy washed over him. 

“Ask me in a few days,” he said. “Maybe I’ll have an answer for you then.”

He walked away from her cell, ignoring as she called out to him. He approached Sasha and Fiona timidly. Sasha turned to glare at him, “Your friend wants you,” she said.

“Yeah, that’s Yvette. The one who double crossed me? Tried to help in killing me then tried to get me killed just, like, forty minutes ago?”

“It’s a shame she didn’t succeed,” Sasha said bitterly.

“Sasha? Really?” Rhys sighed, and a worried and concerned looking Gortys came over to him. 

“Were you able to get my final piece?”

“Yeah, but I don’t think we should put you all together yet. I don’t want to summon the Vault before we’re actually ready. Right now, we have to get August, Finch, and Kroger out of here. Or, maybe in here.” He turned to Fiona and Sasha, “what do you two think?”

“I think Vallory wouldn’t stop to kill us if we imprisoned her son,” Sasha said, crossing her arms and glaring at Rhys. 

“And they’ll be able to get back to Pandora with the caravan, but they won’t be able to use it to get back to Helios,” Fiona said. “So there’s no harm in just sending them home.”

“Yeah,” Rhys said, “I also don’t really want them hanging around anyways. I have so much to do, I don’t need dangerous bounty hunters being held in cells underneath my office.”

The computer screen flickered on and Jack appeared. _“Hey, so not to break up the soap opera or anything, but Princess and his entourage are causing some fuss out at the loading dock.”_ Rhys didn’t miss the disgust that crossed Sasha’s face as she turned to face the monitor. _“Whatya want me to do about them, Rhys?”_

“Lock the doors. Don’t let them in. We’re going to let them leave, so _don’t_ \--”

 _“I heard you loud and clear earlier, Rhysie. No murder.”_ He drew an X over his ‘heart’. _“There, loading dock doors are locked down. Want me to tell them to hit the highway?”_

“Yeah,” Fiona said. “In the meantime, Sasha and I are going to head that way.”

“You’ll be providing us with a way to get off this hunk of junk, too,” Sasha said.

“Going back to Pandora?” Rhys asked, surprised.

“No,” Sasha said. “But we aren’t staying here.”

 _“Okay well, while you three sort out your differences, I’m gonna go tell Princess and Company to get lost.”_ He laughed before flickering off screen.

Sasha turned to glare at Rhys, who held his hands up in defense. “There is seriously no need for you to be so mad at me, Sasha,” he said. “I’m still the same guy, okay?”

“Apparently, I didn’t know you as well as I thought. You’re really okay with everything Handsome Jack has done?”

“Okay, you two,” Fiona said, stepping between them. “You can have this conversation but we should start heading toward the loading dock. I doubt August will take the news well.”

Rhys grumbled and scuffed his shoe against the ground. “Yeah, alright.” Fiona led the group, and Rhys fell into step beside Sasha. “Sash,” he said softly. “Can you please hear me out?”

“Why should I?”

“Because I’m not Jack. After everything back at the dome, I’m hurt that you don’t trust me.”

“Then answer my question: Are you really okay with what Handsome Jack has done?”

“He took a barely managing company on the brink of bankruptcy and turned into a multi-billion dollar corporation, Sasha. Do I agree with his methods? Mostly not. But you can’t deny he didn’t do something amazing here with Hyperion and Helios. I’m going to utilise the tools he left differently. He’s already agreed to let me limit his permissions, so despite being the space station, he’s not going to have a lot of power without my approval.”

“What I’m hearing is you think what Handsome Jack has done is okay because ‘he made this company rich and ergo me, rich’.” She shook her head, frowning.

“That’s not what I’m saying Sasha. But right now, I’d be an idiot to deny Jack’s proposition to run Hyperion with him. This is getting Vallory off our backs, and it gives us an opportunity to make the most of our lives. It’s getting you off Pandora, permanently.” 

“You know what? Right now, I don’t care about Pandora. I care that you found it so easy to just buddy up with the bad guy.”

“Jack isn’t the bad guy here, Sasha.”

She turned to look at him, her glare cold and unforgiving. “Handsome Jack will _always_ be the bad guy, Rhys. I just wish you could see that. I’m done. I don’t want to talk to you anymore.” She walked ahead and caught up with Fiona, leaving Rhys lagging behind, angry and confused. His heart was pounding and his chest was tight with a bubbly anger. He mumbled under his breath and walked behind the pair for the reminder of their journey.

The loading dock doors opened for them as they approached, and closed behind them. Toward the center was Vallory’s trio, angrily standing around as Helios security had guns aimed at them. _“Sorry, Rhysie. Had to bring out the big guns. They were threatening to come barraging in and I thought I’d spare all of us that headache so I summoned security.”_

Rhys sighed and walked toward the trio, frowning. “You guys were ordered to leave.”

August walked up to Rhys and the guards switched to focus on him. August scowled deeper. “What the fuck is this shit? Double crossing us?”

“Sorry, August. The playing board has shifted to our benefit. I’m letting the three of you leave with your lives, isn’t that enough?”

“Vallory won’t like this,” Kroger spoke up from his spot. “She’ll send someone to kill you for this,” he chuckled.

 _“I’d like to see her send someone that can take down an entire space station,”_ Jack laughed dryly. _“She wouldn’t be the first to try, and she wouldn’t be the first to fail. I designed Helios to be resilient. It won’t fall easy.”_

“Then you two are idiots that underestimate Vallory,” Kroger said. “But whatever, it’s not my problem.”

“It’ll be your problem when we show back up without Gortys,” August spat at Kroger. “Just shut up.”

_“Awe, is the princess angry things aren’t going his way? Boo-hoo, how tragic. Mommy gonna make you sit in the corner and think about what you’ve done?”_

August clenched his jaw, “Shut up.” He turned back to Rhys. “You can’t just expect us to leave like this.”

“Listen, August, one-on-one? I don’t think you’re a bad guy. In fact, I actually respect the hell out of you and what you do. But I can’t let Gortys or the Vault fall into the hands of someone like your mother.”

August shook his head. “You’re just damning me to death if you send me down there without Gortys.”

“Well… you don’t _have_ to return to Pandora,” Rhys said. “You just have to leave here. Sasha and Fiona are going to commandeer a ship from us and they’re not returning to Pandora. Why not go to Elpis? You could really start a life there. Run your own business, without your mother breathing down your neck. Even if they take the caravan back to Pandora, it won’t be able to get back to space. Maybe this is your chance to get away.”

August was quiet for a moment, “You’d really just let me leave like that?”

“Dude, I don’t want you here on Helios, no offense; this isn’t the type of place you’d fit in, but that doesn’t mean I want you dead. You’ve been a valuable teammate during all of this, and you’re loyal -- for the most part, at least.” Rhys shrugged, “I think you could do bigger things if you weren’t so under your mother’s thumb.” He turned to glance at Fiona and Sasha, who were talking amongst themselves. “I’m sure they wouldn’t mind dropping you off on Elpis. And you know what, man? When we finally go to open the Vault, we’ll give you a call.”

August gave him a look that let Rhys know the other didn’t believe him in the slightest. “You shouldn’t lie to me, Rhys.”

“It’s not a lie. If I’ve heard anything about Vaults, it’s that they contain way more loot than any one person -- hell, way more than even two people need.You, me, Sasha, and Fiona can divy it all up four ways. Sound good?”

 _“What about me?”_ Jack asked with a pout. 

“You don’t need loot right now, Jack. You’re a computer screen,” Rhys said. “But don’t worry. What I get from it will benefit you, too.”

August sighed. “Guess I can live with that.” He paused and side-eyed the bounty hunters he had come with. “Alright, we got a deal.”

“Cool, c’mon, let’s go talk to Sasha and Fiona. Jack, have security escort Kroger and Finch to the caravan and get them out of here.”

 _“Aye aye, cap’n,”_ Jack said, mock saluting Rhys. _“You heard him, boys.”_

Rhys and August approached the sisters. “Hey, do you think you two can drop August off on Elpis?”

Sasha sighed, “sure, I can do that,” she said.

“I’m staying here,” Fiona said, causing Rhys to blink and do a double take. 

“For real?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“I’ll explain why when we’re not surrounded by other people, how’s that sound Mr. President?”

Rhys rolled his eyes, “fine. You’re still going, though, Sasha?”

“Yep,” she said curtly. “Get me a ship.”

“Uh, you can just take this one right here, I guess.”

“Awesome. C’mon, August. Let’s ditch this corporate nightmare.” Rhys watched as August climbed into the ship with Sasha, frowning slightly. “See you ‘round, Fiona,” She said softly.

“By--” Rhys’s parting words were cut off by Sasha loudly slamming shut the shuttle door. He stepped back and sighed. “She hates me now, huh?”

“Yeah,” Fiona said. “Can’t say I blame her.”

“Do you hate me?”

“No, but you’re definitely walking on thin ice.” The shuttle started up and Rhys and Fiona moved to give it a wide berth. Behind them, the caravan took off as well. “Well, we should head to your office,” Fiona said. “We can talk there.”

“Right,” Rhys said, watching Sasha fly off, heart hurting and sinking. “Let’s get going then.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sasha glanced over at August in the passenger seat. “So… finally breaking free from your mom?”  
> “Yeah. I think Rhys is right. I got a lot of potential and it’s all being wasted working as my mom’s lackey, you know? I’m gonna go to Elpis, make a real life for myself. What about you?”  
> “I’m thinking of heading to Eden-5. Heard it’s a beautiful place.”  
> “Why not… come to Elpis with me?”  
> Sasha snorted out some laughter. “Sorry, August, no offense, I’m not laughing at you.” She sighed and cleared her throat. “I just… don’t want to be anywhere near Helios. Hyperion has always been the bane of my existence,” she said. “Living on a planet where that goddamn H is always watching over me makes me feel like I can’t be myself.”  
> “That’s fair.”  
> There was an awkward pause.  
> “So…” August said, “You and, uh, Rhys? What’s up there?”  
> “I thought he was okay,” she said. “But he’s just another cog in the machine that’s corporate scum. Anything he and I might have had is old news now.”  
> “And, uh, what about us?”  
> She laughed, “And what about us, August?”  
> He shrugged. “I dunno. I just… really thought we hit it off.”  
> “You were a mark, August.”  
> He frowned. “Yeah, I guess. Thanks for the ride, or whatever.”


	3. RokSalt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "When you’re faced with that disrespect, think: WWJD?”
> 
> “WWJD?”
> 
> “What Would Jack Do? I guarantee by the end of this week you’ll have at least one uprising of employees who try to kill you. So, hypothetically, if that happens, what are you going to do? What would I do?”

The walk back to Jack’s -- no,  _ Rhys’s _ office was a silent one. It wasn’t until he hesitated in front of the door that Fiona spoke to him. “What? Nervous?”

“N-no,” Rhys lied. Fiona gave him a pointed look and he looked away, “Okay, fine, a little bit, yeah. I’ve never entered Jack’s office this way,” he said. 

“It’s your office now, Rhys. Or did you forget already?”

He paused, “You’re right,” he said. “Why am I nervous, it’s my office. It’s not like Jack’s gonna lock me out,” he scoffed, walking up to the retina scanner. It beeped at him angrily and the Hyperion Lady’s voice came from the speakers.  _ [Access Denied]. _

Rhys stepped back in shock and Fiona gave him an angry glare, before Jack popped up on the small screen, laughing.  _ “I’m just kiddin’, Rhysie. Come on in.”  _ The doors beeped and opened and Rhys and Fiona entered the elevator to the office level.

When they exited, Fiona walked over to a wall with pictures of Jack painted on it, a part had been ripped down and was revealing… “A map?” Rhys came to stand beside her.

“Yup,” she said, hands on her hips. “That’s why I’m stickin’ around. I’m a Vault Hunter now, and the ‘least you can do is let me search out some of these Vaults. What else am I going to do in the meantime while you research about the Vault of the Traveler?”

Rhys ran his fingers through his hair, sighing some. “How about we go into the office and make an official deal?”

“Sounds good,” she said. They walked into the office, where Jack was staring out the windows.

_ “Hey, kiddos. Hope my little joke didn’t upset you too much,”  _ he said as he swiveled the screen around to look at them.  _ “Just couldn’t resist having a little fun.” _

“Fiona knows about the map of Vaults you have underneath the paintings of you,” Rhys said as he sat at the desk, motioning for Fiona to sit in the chair across from him.

Jack sucked air in through his teeth.  _ “Yeah, I was gonna mention that once everyone was gone. Wasn’t holding out on you, Rhys.” _

“Never thought you were. Hiding things from me won’t benefit you.” He stretched some and leaned back in the chair. “So, here’s what I’m thinking, Fiona. And I’m glad you stayed because I wanted to ask you for your help anyways.” She smirked and he glared at her. “Jack owns the rights to Atlas, you know, the company that made Gortys.”

“Yes, I’m aware,” she said dryly.

“I want to use Atlas to our advantage. Resurrect the old facilities and get them up and running. Start some  _ massive _ Vault research. Atlas will focus on the Gortys project and Vault research only. And then we can use Hyperion for combative purposes. Continue to fund the weapons research here, so that we can find ways to take the Vault monsters down.”

“And where do I come in?”

“You can be our go to Vault Hunter,” he said. “We find a Vault that we can open, we hire you to open it for us. Let’s face it, Fiona, I am not Vault Hunter material.”

She snorted, “no shit, Rhys. You suck.”

He glared at her again. “Anyways. We use you to get into the Vaults, let you find some legendary loot, yada yada, sound good?”

“So if I’m taking the legendary loot, what are you getting?”

Jack laughed,  _ “Fiona, honey, there are so much more valuable things in this world than loot.” _

“Don’t call me honey,” she snapped.

Jack held his hands up on the screen in a passive gesture,  _ “You’re feisty,”  _ he said,  _ “I like that about you. Anyways, Fiona, every Vault also contains information. For example, the Vault I opened before becoming Handsome Jack contained the knowledge of a multitude of Vaults - which explains the map you saw - as well as the knowledge of what guards each one. Puts us at quite the advantage, doesn’t it?”  _ He tapped his skull,  _ “Too bad I’m an AI who was last backed up three weeks before my death, as I - uh - discovered recently. So I don’t have the knowledge that came with the Vault of the Warrior. And uh, a couple of Vault Hunters destroyed the Eye of the Destroyer. That I got from the Vault of the Destroyer after they opened it. That came with the knowledge of how to utilise the eye as a weapon. Was way more powerful than the standard moonbeam,”  _ he said sadly.  _ “Nakymama or whatever his name was working on trying to duplicate the eye for me but I… he died… by uh -- “ _

“Stairs,” Rhys said. “Yeah, learned that from that weird guy in Prosperity Junction.”

“His name is Shade,” Fiona said.

“Is it?”

“Yeah.” She sighed and leaned forward, “So what you’re saying is I help you guys get these Vaults, I get to take the loot from it and you guys take the more ‘valuable’ knowledge that comes from them?”

“Yep.”

She leaned back, eyeballing to the two for a moment. “Sounds like a deal, I guess.”

“Sweet, want me to write up a contract to officalise it, or are you more of a no paper-work kind of girl?”

“Hmm, you can write one up, but no rush. It’s gonna be a minute until we start getting those Vaults open, anyways. And I still have a lot of training to do. But, if I hear you guys went and opened a Vault without me, I’ll tell Athena that Handsome Jack is alive and well.”

Jack let out a nervous laugh,  _ “Hey now, let’s not be too rash. Athena doesn’t need to know a thing about me for the time being. We’ll keep our end of the deal, no worries. ‘Sides,”  _ he said, swiveling the monitor toward Rhys.  _ “We’ll be running things according to President Rhys for the time being.”  _ He clapped his hands together.  _ “Until I’m deemed ‘trustworthy’ enough to make executive decisions, I’ll just act as an advisor.” _

“Good to hear. Now, I’m exhausted. Where can a girl find a bed to sleep on?”

_ “One sec,”  _ Jack said,  _ “Alright, head on out and that Loaderbot friend of yours can show you the way to an executive guest room.” _

“Executive guest room?”

_ “Unless you want to go crash in some random employee’s apartment that they share with up to two other people?” _

“No thanks, executive guest room sounds nice.” She stood and stretched her arms a little bit. “See you two around,” she said, giving them a small wave and heading out.

Rhys spun the chair around to look outside the windows down to Pandora, sighing some. “Alright, Jack. Time to get down to business.”

A few hours later and a new head of Accounting had been chosen, a mass email about a company meeting with the executives had been sent out, and a few minor decisions had been made. Rhys put his feet up on the desk and leaned back. He rubbed the bridge of his nose with his left hand and sighed. “We need to find people to transfer over to Atlas, but we’ll do that tomorrow. For now, I want to discuss permissions with you.”

Jack grumbled and flicked his hand to close whatever programs he had open.  _ “I’ve been dreading this all night. What, going to strip me of everything and take over the whole company for yourself?” _

Rhys had to take a calming breath, “Can everyone stop expecting me to double-cross them, please? No, Jack, I’m not making you powerless. This  _ was _ your company, after all. I value your experience and input, so obviously every major decision made about this company should have you involved. What I  _ don’t _ want you having any access to are the power and weapon subsystems.” He pulled up the .exe files up in his ECHOeye. “That’s it. You can’t vent employees out into space, and you can’t shoot moonbeams or turrets at people. But, just like I’m making sure you’re around for all the decisions made about this company, let’s make it a general rule that nothing can be signed off by just one of us. That way, neither of us can sneak something past the other.”

_ “Just distrusting of me enough to be smart, but not so distrusting you don’t recognise the importance I have within this company. I really do like you, Rhys. You have impressed me yet again.” _

Rhys couldn’t help but smirk in pride. “Yeah, I’m a better corporate overlord than people give me credit for.” He closed down the files and settled into the chair. “I should’ve been in this spot long before this.”

_ “Careful, kid, too soon and I still would’ve been sitting there,”  _ Jack said lowly.  _ “But I will admit, it’s a fitting position for you. You look like a freakin’ king.” _ He brought the monitor in close to Rhys.  _ “Are you ready to be a freakin’ king?” _

“You bet I am,” Rhys said.

_ “Then let me offer you some advice. Earlier, I mentioned making the toadies think you care about them. That  _ is _ important. But a healthy balance of respect and fear gets you a long way. You’re going to get a lot of disrespect from some of your employees, especially the ones who think they deserve to be sitting where you are. When you’re faced with that disrespect, think: WWJD?” _

“WWJD?”

_ “What Would Jack Do? I guarantee by the end of this week you’ll have at least one uprising of employees who try to kill you. So, hypothetically, if that happens, what are you going to do? What would I do?” _

“Well, you’d probably line them up for slaughter or vent them out into space. Those were two of your most common methods from what I recall.”

Jack laughed,  _ “You’re damn right I would. You want them to think you care, but you also need them to know they’re replaceable.” _

“I can’t really answer that question right now,” Rhys admitted. “I probably won’t be able to until I’m faced with it.”

_ “Well, keep that motto in the back of your mind, alright? People are going to betray you.” _

Rhys sighed, thinking about Yvette who was still down in the cells. “Yeah, I know.”

Jack was quiet for a moment, letting Rhys brew in his thoughts.  _ “So, what are you going to do with her?” _

“Yvette? God, I don’t know. I thought she was one of my closest friends, but she sold me out for the equivalent of spare change when it comes to Hyperion.” He closed his eyes. “Sold me out to  _ Vasquez _ of all people.”

Jack giggled  _ “Ah, good ol’ Wallethead. I’m gonna miss him. But watching you blow his arm off was pretty exhilarating.” _

“It was pretty badass, huh?” He shuddered suddenly and gagged. “Oh man, I just thought about the skin pizza. Ergh. Ugh. Gross.”

Jack laughed again,  _ “Yeah that was pretty fuckin’ sick. Man, and then when it got stuck. Ha ha ha sorry, Rhys, but it’s pretty freakin’ funny from my end. I’m not the one who had to peel his face off of a psychos mask, so of course I’m laughing.”  _ He reached up to wipe away what would have been a tear if he had tear ducts.

Rhys gagged some more, “Hrg, stop. Don’t talk about it. I  _ never _ want to experience something like that again,” he said. “Guh.”

_ “Tomorrow’s a big day, Rhysie,”  _ Jack said.  _ “Why don’t I show you the executive suite? It was my own personal bedroom when I was here on Helios, but, uh, I don’t really have a need for a bed right now, do I?” _

“Can you even sleep as an AI?”

Jack shrugged on screen before a secret door opened off to their right, near the trophy case.  _ “I can probably go into like… screen saver mode. Ha ha. Nah, I’m sure I can be shut down, but how about no. I’m probably the best goddamn security system we have right now.” _

Rhys got up and walked over to the secret door. “Screen saver mode, huh? Could you do, like, those 3D pipe animations?”

_ “I’ll make sure I can specifically for you, Rhysie,” _ he cooed, the tone of his voice making Rhys’ skin crawl - but not necessarily in a bad way. He entered the room and whistled. There were large windows in here as well, that offered a slightly different perspective of Pandora. There was a desk over by the windows with a monitor that was currently dark. Jack appeared on it in a flash.  _ “Welcome to Casa de Jack, mi amigo.” _

Rhys flopped onto the bed that was in the center of the room and groaned. “I think this is the most comfortable bed I’ve ever laid on,” he said, voice muffled by the comforter and mattress.

_ “You’re damn right it is. Made sure of it. I actually killed the guy who had this bed, because my last one wasn’t as comfortable.” _

“You killed a lot of people, didn’t you, Jack?”

_ “I mean, can you blame me? I’ve been re-reading a bunch of files and listening to ECHOlogs and shit. It’s like, every time I tried to do something to help people, a bunch of shitty fuckin’ Vault Hunters would stick their noses in my business and then make my life hard just because they didn’t like me or my methods. You know, I actually didn’t start killing people at the rate everyone talks about until after opening the Vault on Elpis? Ever wonder why Handsome Jack came to be?” _

“Honestly, yeah. I mean, all we know about you is that you were a programmer and engineer, working in some middle ranks of Hyperion. Then one day you kill Tassiter and take over but no one really complained because you brought in a lot of money for Hyperion. Then, suddenly, things were just going to hell. Everyone was dying left and right, the station was under attack by Dahl and then under attack by the Vault Hunters. Then everything settled but now you were going by Handsome Jack and wearing that mask and… you were not above killing everyone who worked for you if they so much as looked at you wrong.”

Jack chuckled darkly,  _ “Yeah, we can probably agree that I was spiraling out of control,”  _ his voice was suddenly very serious and Rhys glanced up to look over at the computer screen.  _ “But a man can only take so much grief and trauma before it starts to mess him up, you know? I don’t care what anyone says, those goddamn Crimson Raiders were a fucking pain in my ass. I wasn’t doing  _ anything _ to bother them, but they got their panties in such a knot over the fact that I was opening that Vault on Elpis. They couldn’t keep their noses out of my business and they fucked it all up for me. You know, their boss, Lilith, she disfigured me?” _

“Disfigured you?”

_ “Yeah, right as I sat down in that beautiful throne the Vault provided me, to obtain its secrets, she came flying in, and kicked the goddamn Vault Key right into my face. I’ve got a wonderful full face scar because of her. But it also hardwired all that information directly into my brain. Which was a whole hell of a lot of information to take in at once. I got that mask grafted to my face for reasons a lot of people could never understand. Have you ever looked in a mirror before Rhys and not recognised the reflection in front of you?” _

“Can’t say that I have,” he admitted.

_ “Not a lot of people can say that,”  _ Jack replied solemnly.  _ “It really fucked with my whole psyche you know? I felt disconnected from myself. It’s easy to become a monster when you don’t recognise your own reflection.” _

“If it makes any difference, Jack, I never thought you were a monster.”

Jack gave him a half smile.  _ “You’d be one of few to say that, Rhys.” _

“I try to look for goodness even when I see bad,” Rhys said. “No person in this universe is cut and dry. Good and bad are two sides of the same coin, and what one person perceives as a good thing can be perceived as bad to someone else, and vice versa. Morality is a complex issue that people try to make simple. But it’s not. Humanity is too complex to sum up in a few actions.”

_ “Careful, Rhysie,”  _ Jack warned,  _ “Some people are hard pressed to disagree. To them you’re either good or evil and there is no inbetween.” _

Rhys yawned, “Well, that’s their problem. I’m beat, Jack. I’m going to sleep.”

_ “Alrighty, kiddo. I’ll get a decent schedule for tomorrow written up, so don’t you worry your pretty little head about that. Sleep tight.” _

“G’night, Jack,” Rhys said as he shut his eyes, and soon after, he was drifting off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> August was standing in the decontamination tube set up in Concordia, giving Nurse Nina an inquisitive stare. “So this is standard procedure?”  
> “Da.”  
> “It won’t hurt, right?”  
> Nurse Nina laughed. “It will only hurt a lot.”  
> August laughed nervously, not sure if she was serious or not, until the pain hit him like a freight train. When it was over and done with, he was gasping slightly for air. “What the fuck was that?”  
> “Decontamination, tupitsa.”  
> “Tupitsa?”  
> “Tupitsa,” she repeated, stressing the pronunciation. “Welcome to Concordia. You have good time here, da? Get out.”


	4. Love Thumper

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kevin is just some random guy, and his backstory starts and ends with this chapter. He is simply here as the NPC that leads to Rhys' character arc. 
> 
> BTW Kevin was a huge dick in college.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> He walked closer to Kevin, eyeing him carefully, scanning him with his ECHOeye. “Alright. If that’s how you’re going to be.” Once he felt he was in the appropriate range for himself, he pulled the sleek black pistol from its holster and pointed it directly at Kevin. “Choose your next few words carefully, Mr. Masters,” Rhys said.

_ “Wakey wakey, Rhysie,”  _ came Jack’s voice, rousing Rhys from his dreams. He groaned and rolled over, pulling the blanket over his head. Jack clicked his tongue disappointedly,  _ “C’moooon, Rhys. We got business to get to. I’ve got a schedule written up for you and everything. There’s even a nice, hot breakfast waiting for you at the desk.” _ Rhys perked up a little bit at the mention of food. He hadn’t realised how hungry he really was until Jack mentioned food. He sat up, groaning and brushing some hair out of his face. Jack whistled,  _ “Damn, Rhys. You almost look as handsome as I do in the mornings,”  _ he said, chuckling some.  _ “I’ll be waiting out in the office; see ya in a bit, hot stuff.” _ Rhys caught a glimpse of Jack winking before he flickered off the computer screen.

Rhys got up off the bed and walked over to the closet that was in there, curious as to what outfits Jack had stored in there. He was surprised to see a diverse selection, from casual jeans, to sleek dress pants, and everything in between. He found a pair of black slacks that were surprisingly well fitted for him. The shirts were a different story. The chests on the shirts were most definitely not in his size. Jack’s chest had been broader, and Rhys was… lacking in that area. He was able to find a plain black button up toward the back of the closet that fit him better; perhaps it had been an older shirt Jack had never gotten around to getting rid of. He stood in front of the mirror and combed through his hair until it wasn’t a mess, then left the bedroom. Jack whistled again when he stepped out.

_ “Is that my clothing?” _

“Yeah, I have to swing by my old apartment and grab my stuff.”

_ “Damn, those pants make your ass look  _ great _ ,”  _ he said, tilting his head as he eyed Rhys up. Suddenly, Rhys felt self conscious.  _ “Don’t worry ‘bout your old stuff, kid. We’ll get a tailor in here to make you some nice suits. He’s already scheduled to come in about--”  _ he glanced at something Rhys couldn’t see.  _ “Three hours. Thought you’d like to eat and bathe before getting to any actual work. No offense, Rhys, but you were on Pandora for a hot minute, gettin’ all covered in bandit guts and whatnot. I’m sure you stink right now.” _

Rhys sniffed his armpit before making a face. “Ugh, gross. You’re right. Man, I cannot wait to brush my teeth.” He sat at the desk and eyed the delicious food in front of him. He took a sip of coffee first and felt his soul sing. 

Jack startled prattling off Rhys’ schedule, the list popping up on his computer monitor. He plugged himself into the computer and began downloading the information.  _ “So at 9 the tailor will be here to get you fitted, and that’ll take him probably about an hour. At 10:30 we need to review some information about contractors working on the space station -- god I can’t believe it’s still not finished.”  _ He shook his head and Rhys smiled into his mug.  _ “If people had just listened to me and followed my timeline, the station would have been done  _ three _ years ago. But no, I died so obviously that meant everything I’ve ever said no longer matters. Ugh, whatever. But we need about double the current work force if we want this station done within the next 5 years. Which, I do. Feels less secure with parts of it exposed still. Speaking of security, I noticed a few guards not reporting to their stations last night? So that department definitely needs a major review.” _

By the time Rhys had finished eating, Jack was about wrapping up the schedule.  _ “The big meeting with the department heads isn’t until 4, so we have plenty of time to get this information organised. And listen, I know you don’t wanna rule this place like I did, that’s fine; not everyone is able to bring out the iron fist. But you shouldn’t go into that meeting completely unarmed, okay? Someone may try as early as today to take you down. I don’t have a body so I can’t do anything to stop them should they try. Also, you should have a security guard on you at all times. If I’ve learned anything from my previous run, it’s that Wilhelm was the best goddamn thing to happen to me bodyguard wise. May his soul, or whatever was left of it, rest in peace.”  _ He kissed his fingers and held up a peace sign.

“Hmm, okay, yeah, you’re right. I should carry a gun just so people don’t think I’m easy. Also, a bodyguard… Why not Loaderbot? He’s gotten me out of a lot of sticky situations in Pandora. I trust that robot with my life.”

_ “Hey, I was letting Wilhelm get a bunch of cybernetic surgeries so he was like… eh, ninety-three percent robot before he died. Cool guy, not much for humour, though.” _

“I think I remember him, actually. Every time I saw you, I saw him. He was pretty terrifying if it’s who I’m thinking of.”

_ “Big, angry man with a bunch of robot parts?” _

“Yep.”

Jack sighed wistfully,  _ “Yeah, that was Wilhelm. He was the real mvp. I hired him back when I was trying to open the Vault on Elpis, and he stuck around afterwards. I like loyal people, and Wilhelm… You couldn’t buy his loyalty. Well, I mean you could in the form of letting him get ridiculous cybernetic surgeries but, shit man, who am I to tell a guy who could snap me in half he’s not allowed to get that other robot arm?” _

“Next thing you know, he has  _ five _ robot arms.”

_ “Exactly, but then at that point, he’s got five robot arms to snap me in half with. I’m not dumb.” _

“So, uh, where is a bathroom?” Rhys had finished his good and was checking a few emails from his ECHOeye, having unplugged himself now that Jack was down uploading his schedule. 

_ “If you will follow me back into the bedroom,”  _ Jack said before flickering off the screen in the office. Rhys walked into the bedroom to find another hidden door inside the room, that led to an equally spacious and extravagant bathroom. He whistled lowly.

“You really didn’t cheap out for yourself, did you?”

_ “It’s for you now,”  _ Jack reminded Rhys.  _ “I don’t cheap out on kings.” _

A prideful sensation rose up into Rhys’ chest, and he smiled wide. “Does it ever go away? That feeling when you’re reminded you’re at the top now?”

Jack chuckled from behind Rhys,  _ “No, it doesn’t. The longer you’re there, the better it feels, too. Whelp, I’m gonna go debrief your Loaderbot on his new responsibilities and see if I can find any more holes in the security system. See you when you’re done.”  _ And just like that, Jack was gone again.

Rhys was actually appreciative of the privacy Jack was giving him, but he couldn’t help but be wary about the things he was being provided. Was Jack really so okay with him taking over his office, his room, his  _ bathroom _ ? He stripped down and started fiddling with the shower. Once under the hot water, he tried to cleanse away his worries, but the nagging feeling that Jack was going to do something to double cross him just wouldn’t leave. He was being too nice about this.

Ever since he started college, Jack had been his inspiration. A mid-level employee who seized the power and turned Hyperion from a failing company into something so great that its profits practically tripled in just his first few months of running it.

He was charismatic, charming, and clever. A handsome man who knew how to work his marks to get what he wanted from them. Rhys watched Jack take Hyperion and mould it into the perfect money making corporation. They had a monopoly on weapons. The New-U Stations had also been a  _ massive _ success for Hyperion. Vault Hunters used them more than anyone else, they weren’t cheap or accessible for most people, but Vault Hunters often had the money to dish out to get their DNA downloaded and then replicated in case they were to die in battle. That kind of technology was unheard of from any other company except for Atlas. But, well… the dead to Atlas was sitting in Jack’s office. Another monument to his successes. However, for all the things Rhys looked up to about Jack, there were plenty of reasons for him to be wary about trusting him.

For starters, Jack  _ was _ a murdering psychopath who threw away a lot of lives for profit, who disregarded anyone who hadn’t been useful for him. Six years ago, Rhys wouldn’t have gotten a second glance from Jack, and if he  _ had _ it would have been because the other was getting ready to blow his brains out. Still, it didn’t change the fact that Rhys had idolised the other. From the motivational posters, to practicing his posturing to reflect Jack’s, to even getting a haircut similar to his. Was it unhealthy to emulate himself after Handsome Jack? Rhys tried to tell himself there was nothing wrong with wanting to be more like Jack. Despite the bad things he had done, Jack truly was a remarkable business man.

“You have a once in a lifetime opportunity here, Rhys,” he said to himself. “Don’t fuck it up because you’re worried the AI is gonna try and kill you in your sleep. If he wanted you dead, you’d be dead already.” He groaned some before trying to focus on the hot water loosening his muscles. “Besides, Rhys,” he continued, “He said you have a nice ass. That’s not something someone says when they’re thinking about killing you… Right?”

He was quiet for a moment, before humming happily. “Yeah, people who are thinking about killing you usually don’t compliment your ass,” he said, feeling pride building up in his chest. “Relax, Rhys,” he said. “You were practically  _ born _ for this job. And alongside Handsome Jack, nothing will stand in your way of success.” He finished showering and got dried off and dressed. He dried his hair and styled it, and spent a long time scrubbing his teeth and tongue. When he was done and felt properly tidied up, he made his way back into the office to work on a few things while he waited for the tailor. 

Jack wolf-whistled but didn’t say much outside of business matters. The morning went slowly, but the progress being made between the two of them was impressive. They were quickly falling into a system. At 9 on the dot, the buzzer for entrance went off. 

_ “Y’ello?” _

_ [THE TAILOR FOR RHYS IS HERE.] _

_ “Send him on up.” _

_ [HOPEFULLY HE CAN FIX RHYS’ POOR FASHION.] _

Rhys scowled. “Hey, my fashion taste is perfectly fine.”

_ [NO REASONABLE PERSON HAS A NEED FOR A TIE THAT LONG.] _

“You robots just don’t get it,” he grumbled as Jack let the tailor through the security systems. Loaderbot was accompanying him.

_ [YOU ALREADY LOOK MUCH BETTER IN THAT OUTFIT.] _

“I thought you were supposed to be my friend,” Rhys muttered as the tailor gave him directions.

_ [I AM. THAT’S WHY I’M TELLING YOU NOW THAT YOUR OUTFIT WAS STUPID.] _

**  
  
**

The tailor was quick and professional, only speaking to tell Rhys to move or stand a different way. After taking the measurements, he began to pack up his stuff. “We’ll have a few suits put together for you and ready by 1 o’clock, sir. Is there a more appropriate time for me to come by with them to make sure they fit?”

Rhys scanned his schedule quickly with the ECHOeye. “Actually, if you could have them done by noon, that would be better. I have a phone conference at 1:30. That way, if any additional fitting needs done, you can make sure I have at least one decent suit by my meeting at 4.”

“Of course, sir,” the tailor said, bowing slightly before scurrying out of the office, Loaderbot following behind him.

“Wow,” Rhys said, beaming. “He called me ‘sir’,  _ twice _ !”

Jack chuckled,  _ “Well, get used to it, kid. Lots of people are gonna be callin’ you ‘sir’. Actually, it gets super annoying after a while. It’s like, everyone you meet’s gonna be all ‘Oh hello, sir,’”  _ his voice took on a mocking, overly pleasant tone.  _ “‘You look so handsome today, sir. Anything else I can get for you, sir? Sir, it’s so nice to see you. Yes, sir, of course, sir, right away, sir, sir, sir, sir,’ Ugh, can’t tell you how exhausting it gets.” _

Rhys made a face. “Actually, that sounds pretty terrible.”

He laughed again,  _ “Now just wait until you start getting the ‘Mr. President’ bullshit. It’s like, President is already a title, do we  _ really _ need to add another one on to it? Now we just sound painfully redundant and dumb.” _ He sighed, waving his hand to dismiss the conversation.  _ “Anyways, time to get to work, Rhysie. This paperwork isn’t going to file itself.” _

**  
  
**

_ [THE TAILOR HAS RETURNED WITH YOUR SUITS.] _

Rhys looked up from his paperwork to see that Loaderbot had entered the office with the tailor behind him. The tailor was pushing a rolling rack with clothing bags hanging from it. “We have a small selection here of just standard colours, sir, and after checking the fit, if there’s any additional adjustments that need done, you can pick one for us to prioritise and we’ll make certain that it is ready for you by 3 o’clock at the latest.”

Rhys took the rack and stepped into the bedroom to try them on, finding, to his surprise, that the suits fit him perfectly. The tailor glossed over him once he stepped out, checking the seams and fit with a better trained eye than Rhys. “How does it feel, sir?”

“Feels good,” Rhys said. “Not too tight, but I also don’t feel any baggy areas. Jack? How’s it look?”

Jack’s screen had been playing over the tunnel animation for the past couple hours (much to Rhys’ surprise and amusement), only appearing when he had matters to discuss with Rhys. The screen flickered and he popped up,  _ “Huh? Sorry, was reviewing some of these numbers in Accounting and -- ugh. Definitely the top of our discussion with the Department Heads.” _

“I was asking how the suit looks on me,” He said with a small, coy smile. “See anything that needs adjusted?”

Jack swiveled his screen to look over Rhys.  _ “Mmh-hmm, yep. Looks good, Rhys. You definitely radiate Big Boss Energy,”  _ he said, swiveling around Rhys again. 

Rhys grinned to himself before turning back to the tailor, “So everything’s good then. Thanks. You’re good to go.”

“Thank you, sir,” he said. “We’ll have more suits delivered by the end of the day.” He left with Loaderbot again.

“Dang,” Rhys said. “I already see how annoying the whole ‘sir’ thing can get,” he sighed.

_ “Well, if it’s any consolation, your ass looks absolutely fuckin’ spectacular in those pants, Rhys. Even better than it did in  _ mine _. Goes to show how fitted clothing really does you wonders.” _

Rhys’ face went red and he shook his head. “Do you really have to talk about my ass?”

_ “Can’t you just accept the compliment? Geez,”  _ he said, moving the monitor back over by the desk.  _ “It’s a nice ass, Rhys. Only an idiot would disagree.” _

Rhys sat down, face still burning. “Whatever. Let’s just focus on some work before the meeting.”

_ “Actually, Rhys, I think there’s something else we should focus on, first. Open that bottom drawer of the desk there.” _

Rhys huffed but opened it anyways, and his heart struggled to beat properly when he spotted the pistol just  _ sitting _ there. “Jack, what the hell?”

_ “I want you to take that pistol and keep it on your person. Do you know how to shoot a gun?” _

“D-do I know how to -- Jack you saw me take Vasquez’s arm off, right? I can shoot a gun if -- if necessary.”

_ “Well, then, we’ll have to squeeze in some training this week. The purpose isn’t to have it to use it -- although I  _ definitely _ used my guns in an extremely liberal manner. The purpose is to have it  _ if _ you have to use it. And we should make sure you can use it to the absolute best of your abilities, alright, champ?” _

“A-alright, I guess,” Rhys said, nerves making his hand shake as he picked it up carefully. He checked to make sure the safety was on. He saw the holster in the drawer and put it on and then put the gun in it. 

_ “Awesome,”  _ Jack said, clapping his hands together.

**  
  
**

Before Rhys knew it, it was 3:30 and the meeting was happening soon. The day had been busy, full of a lot of reading, and number crunching. In Jack’s absence, things at Hyperion had gotten messy. Money was moving in all directions and just seemingly disappearing; it was frustrating every time he and Jack ran into a dead end on where the money was transferred to. He had noticed a huge discrepancy in what was being reported from the Requisition Department. It was almost as major a discrepancy as what they had seen coming from Accounting itself. He was walking toward the meeting, holding up a holographic projection of Jack in his hand, a nifty thing they discovered they could do simply by downloading an add-on to Rhys’ ECHOeye.

_ “I keep looking, and all the transfers were approved by the head of Requisition himself. The freakin’ bastard. Thinks he can funnel all this money out of Hyperion that brazenly out in the open and not get caught? Wonder if he’ll have the goddamn balls to show his face at this meeting. If he’s smart, he would have left Helios by now.” _

“Well, that just would have alerted us that something was up before now,” Rhys said. “He’s probably hoping we haven’t gotten that far into the system yet. If there were only one of us, it’s plausible the whole thing would have gone unnoticed because he approved the transfers himself, making them look legitimate. Can you pull up his employee file for me? I want to look it over before the meeting starts.” He entered the conference room, suddenly feeling very small. It was massive. “Wow,” he said, dropping his hand and causing the holo-Jack to be upside.

_ “Hey, jackass. Hold me up right.” _

“Sorry,” Rhys said, picking his hand up quickly. “Just… why is this room so big?”

_ “It’s used for all sorts of meetings. Sometimes we need to hold up to a hundred people in here.” _

“A h-hundred?!”

_ “Yeah. Anyways, here’s the head’s file. He’s pretty young,”  _ Jack said.  _ “Only twenty-eight years old.” _

“I’m only twenty-seven,” Rhys said. “So he’s officially older than -- holy shit, Kevin Masters?”

_ “Wait back up, you’re only twenty-seven?” _

“Yeah, but that’s not -- Kevin fucking Masters?”

_ “Christ, you’re still like, a fucking kid, Rhys. I was forty-three when I started running this place. You’re gonna be in charge for a loooong time, Rhys. Anyways, you know the head?” _

“Yeah,” Rhys grumbled. “Kevin Masters. We went to college together. He’s got an ego almost as bad as Vasquez,” he groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose with his organic hand. He scanned over Kevin’s profile some more, scoffing. “There’s no way he got to be the head of Requisitions without pulling some strings, I guarantee it.”

_ “That’s just how this world works, Rhys. No one ever makes it through hard work alone. You gotta know people, and know how they work. Play your cards right and you can make it anywhere. But I mean, you know that. Just look at you. Twenty-seven and the freakin’ President of Hyperion.” _

“Yeah, well, I only got lucky. If Vaughn hadn’t said for me to grab Nakyama’s ID chip, we never would have found you. You also could have chosen to kill me at any point leading up to now.”

_ “Killing you would have killed me, kid. I kept you alive because I had to. But --”  _ he shrugged, like he was weighing out options.  _ “ -- in the end, keeping you alive was the better decision. I might be ‘crazy’, but I’m not an idiot. I know when someone is more valuable to me alive than dead. And, Rhys, you are  _ so _ much more valuable alive. Seriously. Could not have picked a better heir myself.” _

Rhys felt himself posture at that comment, cockiness overriding the sensibility of his brain. “Well,” he scoffed, “I am pretty great.” 

Jack laughed,  _ “So, what are you gonna do about this Masters guy?” _

Rhys groaned, “I don’t know. Fire him? Play the long con during this meeting, see what he has to say about the department first, then once he’s done being useful,” he made a gesture with his free hand like he was telling someone to scram.

****  
  


Rhys wouldn’t admit it, but he felt intimidated by the group of people in front of him. These people - excluding Kevin - had all been working at Hyperion for almost as long as he had been  _ alive _ . They definitely were looking at him with disgust. Jack was on a screen behind him, and most people were watching Jack. Not that Rhys really blamed them, it wasn’t every day that a psychotic corporate overlord came back from the dead as an artificial intelligence version of themselves. Both of them took turns speaking and addressing the group, but Rhys also noticed -- with growing frustration -- that the heads were less likely to answer to him than they were Jack, and even when they were answering a question posed by Rhys, they would direct their answer to Jack. It was an infuriating little thing.

“Alright,” Rhys said, toward the end of the meeting. “That about wraps up everything, but before we part, I have a question for Mr. Masters over at Requisitions.”

“Yeah?” He asked, sounding absolutely bored.

Rhys leaned forward, lifting his robotic hand to bring up a display with the money that had been moving around. “Care to explain all of this?”

The head of Requisition scoffed, “Isn’t that Accounting’s job?”

“Ordinarily, yes, but we’ve had to completely upend the entire Accounting department, hence the new head of Accounting with us today. Besides, these were all money and asset transfers approved by you. It makes them look like they’re legitimate transactions, but when they’re traced, they all seem to go into this really weird bank account that isn’t affiliated with Hyperion at all. Weird, isn’t it?”

“I know what you’re insinuating, Rhys, and frankly, I’m offended. Thought you knew me better than that,” he said, placing his hand over his heart. “I’m not funneling money out of Hyperion for my own personal gain, do you really think I’m that stupid?”

Jack laughed from behind Rhys  _ “Actually, kid, yeah. We do think you’re that stupid.” _

Kevin’s half-cocked smirk disappeared from his face. “And what are you going to do about it, Rhys? Fire me? Find a new head of Requisitions? Good luck with that. No one’s been interested in filling this role for  _ years _ . I should know, I’ve been stuck in it for the whole time. Besides, without me, you have no chance of even recovering the stuff I’ve transferred.”

_ “WWJD, Rhys.” _

Rhys was quiet for a moment, before he turned to face Loaderbot who was standing by the door entrance. Rhys stood up slowly. “Loaderbot, block the door.”

_ [OKAY.] _

“Jack, station-wide message.”

_ “Cameras are rolling, baby.” _

Rhys turned to face Jack’s screen, scowling. He hoped he looked threatening to the masses. “Hey, Hyperion. President Rhys here. I know it’s only Day One, and I was really hoping that today wouldn’t be super eventful, but unfortunately it seems we have a  _ big _ problem here on Helios. It seems a lot of people are trying to get a leg up in the system by moving money around and by doing… favours… to get higher up the branch. That ends today. Starting today, you will be judged by your work ethic and personality.”

“I  _ really _ didn’t want to have to make a big dramatic scene on my first full day as President, because my goal is to run things differently than Jack did, which means less murdering and venting people out into space. And I really hope you can all appreciate that direction I’m taking, because I know  _ I’d _ be relieved to hear that the new President that’s  _ working _ with Handsome Jack is anti-murder-without-a-cause.”

“Here’s where my issue lays, though. I’ve asked Kevin Masters here, head of Requisitions, to explain to me why a total of 2.6  _ billion _ dollars and 1.3 million dollars in assets have been moved from Hyperion accounts into an account not even  _ affiliated _ with Hyperion.” He shook his head. “And you know what he had the audacity to tell me? That I would never see that money again without his assistance in recovering it. But from the sounds of it, Kevin doesn’t  _ want _ to recover it.” He turned to face Kevin. “Have you anything to say for yourself?”

Kevin chuckled and rolled his eyes. “I think you’re just a drama queen without Jack’s bite,” he said. “You were a loser in college, and you’re a loser now. No one here sees you and wants to give you an ounce of respect. You won’t last the week, Rhys, and you know why? Because you’re not fit to be the President. You’re… Assistant Vice Janitor material at best.” His grin was smug and cocky, and Rhys had the feeling Kevin thought Rhys was backed into a corner.

WWJD?

He walked closer to Kevin, eyeing him carefully, scanning him with his ECHOeye. “Alright. If that’s how you’re going to be.” Once he felt he was in the appropriate range for himself, he pulled the sleek black pistol from its holster and pointed it directly at Kevin. “Choose your next few words carefully, Mr. Masters,” Rhys said.

The other man pressed his lips together tightly, eyeing the pistol with visible discomfort. He looked down at the table in front of him and stayed quiet.

“Would you like to remain employed under Hyperion?”

“I-I--” He stammered.

Rhys clicked off the safety, grateful he was holding it with his robotic arm. He was running on pure adrenaline and didn’t need any sign that he might be scared of what was happening -- because he was. He was so very afraid of what he was doing right now. But… What would Jack do?

“Please, sir,” Kevin said weakly, voice small.

‘Sir,’ thought Rhys. “Please, sir, what?”

“I-I’d like to rem-m-main employed under Hy-Hyperion,” he said, voice breaking so harshly on ‘Hyperion’ that it almost made Rhys laugh.

Rhys lowered the gun and smiled condescendly at Kevin. “Wonderful. Kevin. Report to Subsection 4F immediately for training. You’re our newest Apprentice Janitor,” his smile had turned into a full on sneer. The anger, fear, and frustration that was visible on Kevin’s face was so obvious Rhys could pick up his emotions without assistance from his ECHOeye. Kevin slowly began to stand, pale and shaking. “Thank you, sir,” Rhys prompted him, waving him on with the hand that held the gun.

“Th-thank you, s-sir,” Kevin said. And just as he went to step forward, Rhys lifted the gun just slightly, and shot him right in the leg. Kevin screamed, as did others in the room, but all of theirs were quickly silenced by their hands. Kevin fell to the floor, groaning in pain, with panicked sobs escaping him.

Rhys just tutted and shook his head. “You’re all dismissed,” he said before turning back to the screen Jack was using to record Rhys. “That’s all. Everyone return to their regular duties.”

The screen flickered and Jack appeared back on it, his eyes wide and a huge grin on his face.  _ “Rhys, my  _ man _ ,”  _ he said as the heads quickly shuffled out of the conference room, two of them stopping to help Kevin up and lead him out of the room.  _ “H-holy shit!”  _ He laughed, ecstatic and vibrant sounding.  _ “That-- that was fucking awesome, Rhys. I am -- I am  _ so _ proud of you, I can’t even begin to express it. Like, seriously. Kudos.” _

Rhys’ smile dropped once everyone was gone and he hugged himself after holstering the gun. “Yeah, I never want to do it again. If it was anyone else but Kevin, I might not have been able to. I just got lucky it was someone I disliked enough I could excuse shooting in the leg.”

_ “It’ll get easier,” _ Jack said.

“No,” Rhys said sharply, making Jack blink in surprise. “I don’t want it to get easier. I never want to do it again. Hopefully that was the only time I’ll ever have to do it.”

_ “I’d be lying to you if I said it was. Listen, Rhys, with things this momentous, this profitable, it’s never just once. I’m not trying to scare you, but you gotta believe me kid when I say I’ve had more assassins hired to kill me than I can feasibly count. Christ, sometimes there were more than four hunting me down at the same time.” _

“It was different with you. I’m going to make this company something different. I’m ending this vicious cycle.”

Jack shook his head sadly and gave Rhys an empathetic look.  _ “If it helps you sleep at night,” _ he said, trailing off.

Rhys didn’t want to admit that at one point in time, Jack had probably been in this  _ exact _ spot, with the heavy weight of his decisions crashing over him like waves. Rhys closed his eyes and hugged himself tighter. He vaguely heard the sound of Loaderbot walking over; he felt the robot’s hand touch his back and start leading him out of the room, and he was vaguely aware of Jack’s voice, soft and calm.

_ [YOU NEED TO COLLECT YOURSELF.] _

Rhys blinked, looking up at Loaderbot. It felt like the other was a million miles away.

_ [RHYS. PLEASE COLLECT YOURSELF. WE NEED TO GET BACK TO THE OFFICE. THE EMPLOYEES SHOULD NOT SEE YOU THIS WAY.] _

Rhys took a deep breath, steadying himself. He still felt like he was walking in a daze, but he kept his head up and his expression neutral. Loaderbot walked directly behind until the pair got off the elevator that led to Rhys' office.

Rhys did not remember making it to the bed. He did not remember crying into the pillow until his throat was sore and raw. He did not remember when Jack came to check on him and he screamed at the monitor on the desk, taking his shoe off and throwing it at the monitor. He did not remember missing and he certainly did not remember the expression on Jack’s face before he flickered away and left Rhys to be alone.

He did not remember falling asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rhys grunted as he was pushed into the wall, causing him to spill his shitty alcohol all down the front of his shirt. “Fuck,” he said under his breath. “Hey, can’t you watch where you’re going?” He said loudly as he looked up, only for Kevin Fucking Masters to turn around and glare at him. He rolled his eyes. “Christ, it’s you.”  
> “Hey Rhys,” Kevin said, “Where’s your little butt buddy? Couldn’t he get in this time?”  
> “Vaughn is actually in the bathroom for your information. Surprised they let piss-for-brains like you in here. Usually the baseball house is a little more, uh, how do you say it? Pas pour les boiteux?”  
> “That’s not even a saying,” Kevin said.  
> “Yeah, it is,” Rhys countered, crossing his arms. “You’d know that if you ever did anything but drink protein shakes and do push ups in the most obnoxious places.”  
> “You’re just jealous because you can’t do push ups!” Kevin said, getting down to the ground into plank position. “Beat me at push ups and I won’t beat your ass,” he demanded as he started to count push ups.  
> Rhys looked down at him with pity, “Have fun with that, Kevin,” he said as he walked away to find a new drink.


	5. smig

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Well, it was a lucrative bonus,” he said. “Kept Vaughn and I up at night for years, but in the end, I guess it worked out. For me… at least.”  
> “Missin’ your little buddy?”  
> “You know what? Yeah. I miss Vaughn. He was my best friend and got me through some really tough shit. And now,” he threw his hands in the air. “I don’t even know if he’s alive, but I’m sitting the goddamn cushy life up in here.” He grumbled and crossed his arms. “It’s just not fair. I never pictured making it here without him, and I really wish he was here to celebrate with me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, y'all. Took me until this chapter to actually look up Pandora's rotational period and I discovered it is 90 hours! So, please ignore any and all previous time mentions in previous chapters, because I am not going back to fix them, but from this chapter and going forward, I will be using a new time system. It will work in base 30 on an analog clock, which means it will take 3 full cycles on an analog clock to complete a single day in Pandora. Unum Trium or UT, Duo In Tres or DT, and Tres Autem Tribus or TT (versus our AM and PM) are the time conventions of Pandora.
> 
> The days are divided into 1ut-30ut, 1dt-30dt, and 1tt-30tt. The day and night cycle is 45 hours each. For a better explanation and small diagram, please go here: https://imgur.com/a/6h1IOe5
> 
> And don't worry if it's confusing for you, it's confusing for me too! I actually had to ask my friend who does theoretical math for science fictitious worlds for fun. He's a nerd, but I would have been horribly lost without him. Thanks, dude.

_ Rhys was dreaming. He was acutely aware he was dreaming. The one thing that always tipped him off that it was a dream was that his ECHOeye was useless. The scans came up devoid of any information. Realistically, he knew the person in front of him. He knew who he was pointing the sleek black gun at.  _

_ “Don’t,” he heard just before he pulled the trigger. _

_ There was pain. Not real pain, but dream pain. The kind of pain that didn’t quite make it out of your subconscious, but if you woke up, it might linger there in the edges of your sleep. Rhys fell to the ground, gagging on the pain. It made his throat tight, and his body convulse. He writhed, screaming, begging, pleading. _

_ He felt, in that not-so-real way, hands lift his torso up, and collect him. He cried, trying to pull from the hands, but also wanting to embrace them at the same time. _

_ “Shh, it’s me. I got you.” He felt a hand smooth his hair down and he could finally see past the pain. _

_ “Sasha,” he said hoarsely. “Sasha I don’t know what happened.” _

_ “Jack shot you,” she said.  _

_ “I don’t understand,” he gasped. _

_ “I got you,” said the voice, but it was changed. “It’s okay, kiddo, I’ve got you.” _

_ “Jack,” Rhys said. “You shot me.” _

_ “No, I didn’t,” he said, lifting Rhys up effortlessly. “That was all you, Rhysie. You aimed the gun. You pulled the trigger.” _

  
  


Rhys woke up in a cold sweat, a pained cry swelling in his throat, but he was able to swallow it down. He breathed heavily for a moment, and as his world began to come into focus, he was acutely aware of just how shitty he felt right at that very moment. His muscles and throat were sore, and his eyes felt puffy, his organic one was dry and itchy, He swung his legs over the side of the bed and shuffled toward the bathroom. He stopped by the monitor and saw his shoe laying haphazardly on the floor.

“Jack?” He said out loud, voice cracking. He got no response. He sighed and made his way into the bathroom, and powered up his ECHOeye. He groaned when he saw it was only 4:00 tt. It was the middle of typical sleeping hours, and he didn’t have to be awake for another three. He turned on the hot water and started filling the tub.

He stripped and got into the water, groaning slightly. He let it fill up more, come up to his neck before shutting it off. He soaked for a while, letting the heat soothe him. After a while, he lifted up his cybernetic hand and tried to summon Jack. It wasn’t until the third time that Jack appeared in his hand.  _ “Hey, Rhys -- christ, are you bathing?” _

“Yeah, just don’t turn around and you’ll be fine,” he said.

_ “It’s the middle of th--” _

“I know. Three hours before I have to be up, but I’m awake now, so what does it matter? I… I wanted to apologise for whatever I may have said or did last night.”

_ “Wait, is that a tattoo?” _

Rhys looked over at the tattoo on his arm. “Yeah, I have a -- wait, wait, Jack I’m trying to--”

_ “That’s not important. What’s important is you’ve been holding out on me about this tattoo. What, next you’re going to tell me you have a tramp stamp or something?” _

Rhys blushed a little bit, “Actually it’s on my ass cheek,” he said.

_ “No way,”  _ Jack said, starting to turn around.  _ “Show it to me- hey!” _

Rhys had thrown his hand back behind the tub so Jack was upside and hidden. “I said don’t turn around! Can we talk about my tattoos later? I’m trying to actually be serious here, Jack.”

_ “Okay, okay. Sheesh, I’m sorry. I’ll close my eyes, or why don’t you cover up or something?” _

“It’s as easy as don’t turn around.”

_ “Fine, fine. I’ll behave.” _

Rhys sighed and lifted his hand back up, righting Jack. “Okay,” he said and Jack opened his eyes. “I was trying to apologise for freaking out last night. I don’t… remember much after sh-shooting Kevin a-and--”

_ “You don’t have to apologise, Rhys,” _ Jack interrupted.  _ “Trust me, the first time is the worst time.” _

“That’ll be the  _ only _ time,” Rhys said through gritted teeth, and he had to look away from Jack when he saw a flash of pity in the other’s eyes.

_ “Okay,”  _ Jack said.  _ “If that’ll help you sleep at night, that’s what you can tell yourself. I won’t stop you. But, seriously, no need to apologise for losing it there last night, kid. You kept yourself composed until you were in a private space; that’s what’s important. Can’t show them any weakness. Hyperion is full of sharks -- “ _

“When there’s blood in the water, everybody smells it,” Rhys finished quietly. “Yeah, I said something like that not that long ago. Hopefully… This will be enough to keep people in line.” Jack didn’t say anything, but Rhys saw the look he made, and he knew what that look meant. “In the meantime, I suppose we need a new head of Requisitions. Any ideas as to who?”

_ “Actually, buttercup, I was running some employee profiles through the network when you summoned me. I think we’ve got a candidate with some real potential. She’s apparently tough as nails, not afraid to get her hands dirty, and motivated as all hell.” _

“Okay… what’s her name?”

_ “Oh, it’s your little jailbird, Yvette.” _

“Yvette? Seriously? The chick that tried to kill me like, not even a whole seventy-two hours ago?”

_ “Yeah, but I think she’ll be motivated to  _ not _ kill you. Look man, she’s got one of the best employee profiles. So she tried to kill you; that’s old news. In the past. She made a mistake and you let her live for a reason, because,”  _ he laughed dryly,  _ “had it been  _ me _ she tried to kill? She’d definitely not be sitting in a jail cell right now? No, no. I would have cut her fucking fingers off and fed them to her.” _

Rhys cringed at the visual. “Thanks for that.” He sighed, “I’m not like you, Jack. Even when I’m hurt by someone, I don’t want to kill them. Like I said, Kevin Masters was a major dick to Vaughn and I in college.” He slid lower into the bath water some. “I almost couldn’t shoot him. If I hadn’t been so high-strung, I might not have even pulled the trigger, but it was easier to tighten up than relax.” He felt his stomach churn as conflicted emotions fought inside him. He closed his eyes, feeling drained. “I wish I hadn’t done it.”

_ “Too late for that now, kid. This is just something you’re going to have to ride out.” _

“Yeah,” he said weakly. “Doesn’t really help me feel better, though.”

_ “I’m here to guide you along being Hyperion’s CEO and President, Rhys. Not to make you feel good about the decisions you make.” _

“Right,” He said, cutting his communication with Jack and getting out of the tub to dry off. He browsed the suits that had been left to him by the tailor and frowned. He eventually picked out a dark grey one and put it on after styling his hair. 

He stepped out into the office, pulling up emails from his ECHOeye. Each day the number grew, and with two departments suddenly upended even worse than previously, Rhys’ own personal tasks grew. “Hey, Jack,” he said. “You around still?”

Jack flickered up on the screen, scowling slightly.  _ “You done being a whiny bitch?” _

Rhys sighed; he deserved that. “Yeah, I’m over it. Moving on.”

_ “Good.” _

“I think we should get an assistant,” Rhys said, sorting through the emails as he spoke, marking which ones were truly important and which ones he could put off for later. “Obviously set up an algorithm so they don’t get access to restricted and confidential information, but so they can deal with the smaller stuff.”

_ “What, my schedule making and email sorting not good enough?” _

“So you want to keep on doing it yourself?”

Jack sighed,  _ “No, not really. But who even could we trust?” _

“I don’t know. But let’s start thinking about it. I’m going down to talk to Yvette about her new job position.” He stopped and pinched the bridge of his nose. “How… station-wide was that video? Would Yvette have seen it? Fiona?”

_ “Oh, Fiona definitely saw it. She came by last night and if it weren’t for Loaderbot, you’d probably be dead.” _

Rhys winced, “Rightfully so, though.”

_ “Thought you were done being a whiny little bitch, Rhys,”  _ he said.  _ “Stop acting like shooting some asshole who couldn’t respect you in the leg is the worst thing you’ve done. How many people died because of you down on Pandora?” _

“Those weren’t intentional. I did what I had to do.”

_ “Yeah, and you did what you had to do to secure the respect of your employees. If you hadn’t done that, who knows how many little rebellions you’d have to be squashing right now. So stop bitching about it.” _

Rhys was quiet; he didn’t want to admit that Jack was most likely right, that shooting Kevin in the leg had done them more good than harm. Even if it made him feel sick to his stomach. He left the office and almost immediately, Loaderbot was by his side. The walk to the cells was quiet, and the people who saw Rhys made sure to walk away from his path. It was both flattering and worrisome to see. 

_ [ARE YOU FEELING BETTER?] _

“Yeah,” Rhys said. “Thanks for yesterday.”

_ [FIONA TRIED TO COME SEE YOU. I HAD TO TALK HER OUT OF TRYING TO KILL YOU.] _

“I appreciate that.” Rhys said. “But I also feel like her anger was deserved.”

_ [AGREED.] _

Rhys sighed before opening the door to the cells. He nodded at the guard, who took that as their cue to leave. He approached Yvette’s cell, and leaned up against the wall across from it. “How you doin’, Yvette?”

She glared up at him. “Here to kill me?”

He laughed, but it was humourless. “Trust me, Yvette. If I wanted you dead, you’d be dead.”

“Come to put a bullet in my knee like Masters, then?”

He clenched his jaw before pushing himself forward and walking to her cell. “Christ, Yvette, do you really think so lowly of me? Is that why it was so easy to just throw me under the bus? Was I ever really your friend?”

“I don’t know, Rhys, were you? Out of nowhere, you’re stealing money from Hyperion and trying to screw other people over. And you roped me into it, put  _ my _ ass on the line, and get upset when I decide to save my own ass?”

“Okay, that’s fair. But then when I came back up here and  _ told _ you that I wasn’t dead, you tried to have me taken away by security. Even then I didn’t kill you, Yvette, even though I really, really thought about it.”

“You hit me with the stun baton!”

“In my defense, that was actually Jack taking over my arm.”

“I still watched you shoot a guy in the leg. And Vasquez is dead, and you didn’t tell me what happened to him, just insinuated it was you.”

“Well,” he said, rubbing the back of his head. “Vallory shot him after we left the Atlas facility where we found Gortys.”

“Vallory? Gortys?”

“Vallory is a mob boss on Pandora, and she was a part of the Vault Key deal that Vasquez was in on, but he was no longer useful to her so she shot him. Gortys is a robot designed by Atlas to summon an extremely elusive and valuable Vault.”

“Doesn’t explain why his body was in literal pieces, Rhys.”

“Oh, a - uh - psycho with a grenade detonated while, like, right on top of Vasquez. After I, uh - hrk.”

“Hrk?”

“Urg, bleh - uh,” he gagged again. “After I- hng - had to peel his f-fa-face off of a psycho’s mask.” He shuddered, as did Yvette.

“Gross. Pandora sounds  _ awful _ .”

“Yeah, it is,” he said. “It was very awful down there. Honestly, would prefer to never go back but… There’s good people down there, and I want to help them.”

“And you’re telling me this why?”

“Actually, I hadn’t planned on telling you any of that, but you kind of asked and the conversation just went in that direction. I actually came down here to offer you a new job position.”

“What?”

“Would you like to be Head of Requisitions?”

“ _ What? _ ”

“Yes or no, Yvette. Because if not, we need to start looking for someone else to fill the position.”

“Yes, of course, I mean… You’re really going to offer me a job promotion after I betrayed you?”

“Jack says you’re the best we got,” he said, shrugging. “And I personally agree. You’ve always been a requisitions master. So what you tried to help in getting me killed. It’s in the past. Besides,” he said as he grabbed the keys to unlock her cell. “I have faith you won’t try to kill me again, because, as much as I never want to have to shoot another person again in my life, cross me, and I won’t hesitate to take you out.”

“Sounds good to me,” Yvette said, standing and coming up to the cell entrance. When the door opened, she threw her arms around Rhys. “You won’t regret this, Rhys.”

He chuckled, “Yeah, okay. And hey, I still owe you lunch, remember?”

She lightly punched him in the arm, “of course I remember! You  _ definitely _ can’t cheap out on me now, Rhys.”

“Yeah, well, how about I check my schedule and set aside time for you. I’ll let you know. You should probably get some more rest. You’ve got a big day ahead of you. And, uh, let me know if you have any issues with people respecting you, not that I think you’d need my help anyways, but, still. The offer is there.”

“Thanks,” she said. “Seriously.”

  
  


“Hey, Jack,” Rhys said, closing out an email he had been reading and leaning back in his seat. It was close to lunch time. “What was the… defining moment for you?”

_ “What?” _

“Like, when you look back, on everything you’ve ever done, what is the moment that stands out to you most?”

_ “Stands out to me most how? There’s a lot of moments I can recall.” _

“I guess… the moment you knew you were going to pave your own path, and that there was no looking backwards?”

Jack was quiet for a moment before swiping his hand across his screen, the tell tale sign he had closed out whatever it was he was looking at.  _ “When my ex-girlfriend turned on me and had the Eye of the Destroyer destroyed. That used to be what powered the moonbeam. More powerful than anyone could even imagine, and Hyperion had its powers harnessed and at their disposal. Then Moxxi and those fuckin’ Vault Hunters came here and destroyed it. Almost destroyed the whole base while they were at it.” _

“I remember that. I had just started working here as an intern. Fresh out of school.”

_ “That’s when I knew it didn’t matter what I did, because there were always going to be people who opposed me. Christ, I wasn’t even President yet. Tassiter was still CEO at the time. But it was then that I knew no matter how hard I worked to make things better for people, there was always going to be someone who thought their cause was mighter than mine, so why bother holding back the punches, you know? It was after that whole scenario that I, uh, guess the whole Handsome Jack persona started to materalise.” _

“So, Handsome Jack isn’t really who you are?”

_ “Don’t get me wrong, kid. Handsome Jack is a huge part of who I am. I wouldn’t be here today without having been him. But, I’m tired. Tired of fighting those Vault Hunters tooth and nail every step of the way. You’re right; staying on the downlow is what I have to do right now. We’ll see with time if that’s who I really am or not.”  _ He shrugged.  _ “Probably is. The more I think about my past, the more I think I’ve always been this way.” _

“Care to elaborate?”

Jack looked at him carefully,  _ “Not right now, no.” _

“Alright.”

_ “What about you? Think you’ve hit that point yet?” _

Rhys was thoughtful. “I’m not sure. Maybe. It could have been the Eridium mining deal Vaughn and I set up a couple of years ago. That really pushed me ahead of my peers in the field. Got me a fat bonus, the ECHOeye and cybernetic arm interface.”

_ “You know, it was because of Wilhelm I pushed the cybernetics department to do more research? Dude was way ahead of his time. Who needs people when you can have cyborgs?” _

“Cyborgs are part people,” Rhys said defensively. “They at least start out as people.”

_ “Yeah, but you can’t tell me that ECHOeye and arm interface doesn’t put you leaps and bounds above other people. It grants you opportunities others can only dream of. There’s high end executives that can’t afford to get such high quality interfaces. Yours is pretty snazzy, Rhys.” _

“Well, it was a lucrative bonus,” he said. “Kept Vaughn and I up at night for years, but in the end, I guess it worked out. For me… at least.”

_ “Missin’ your little buddy?” _

“You know what? Yeah. I miss Vaughn. He was my best friend and got me through some really tough shit. And now,” he threw his hands in the air. “I don’t even know if he’s alive, but I’m sitting the goddamn cushy life up in here.” He grumbled and crossed his arms. “It’s just not fair. I never pictured making it here without him, and I really wish he was here to celebrate with me.”

_ “Well, if he still has his Hyperion credentials, we should be able to contact him; given he’s in an area with service, of course.” _

Rhys practically fell out of the chair with how quickly he sat up. “Well, then, what are we waiting for?”

_ “Okay, chill, chill. I’m accessing his profile now. Don’t know what I’ll get out of this but whatever.”  _ There was a beep, and then Vaughn’s profile appeared on Rhys’ computer screen, a ringing tone coming from the speakers.

There was a click, and then brief silence. “-lo?”

“Vaughn? Vaughn is that you?”

“Rhys?” Vaughn’s voice was muffled by static, and kept cutting in and out, but it was distinctly Vaughn. “Rhys! H- it. I’ve been try- can’t secure a con-. - you?”

“Vaughn, I can’t really hear you. Where are you?”

“-know. Cassius-” There was a sharp interference and the sound of gunshots. “Psy-. -go.” There was a click and Vaughn was gone.

Rhys’ heart sank and he slumped back in the chair. “Any way to trace that call?”

_ “Sorry, kid. Couldn’t establish a secure enough connection. But if you call him again, I’ll try.” _

“Sounded like he was in the middle of something,” Rhys said. “I won’t call him back right now, but later.” His stomach growled and he sighed. “Wonder if Yvette is busy. Told her I’d buy her lunch.” He pinged her.

“Hey,” she said when she answered. “You weren’t kidding about me having a busy day. Also, this office is  _ sweet _ , Rhys.”

He chuckled, “Want to grab lunch?”

“Is that even a question?”

“I’ll meet you at your office.” He hung up and pushed himself out of the chair. “What, I have until 17tt before I’m actually needed for anything, right?”

_ “Looks about right.” _

“I’ll work on emails over lunch. See you later, Jack.”

_ “Je te fais mes adieux,” _ he said.  _ “Don’t get yourself killed.” _

“No promises,” he called behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [I HAVE TO ASK YOU TO LEAVE.]  
> “I’m gonna kill that lying son of a bitch first. Let me through!”  
> Loaderbot held Fiona in his arms, and if he had the ability to do so, he would sigh in exasperation. [I CANNOT ALLOW YOU TO DO THAT FIONA.]  
> “UGH! He’s a backstabbing, lying --”  
> “Hey, Loaderbot, let her in the office, she’s making a scene.”  
> Loaderbot let go of Fiona and they rode the elevator up to the office in mostly silence. Fiona was angrily tapping her foot and muttering to herself. She turned to face Loaderbot, “You seriously can’t be okay with what he did, Loaderbot?”  
> [MY OPINION ON THE MATTER IS NOT IMPORTANT. WHAT HAS BEEN DONE IS DONE.]  
> She followed him into the office, stomping and ready to tear Rhys apart if the look in her eyes was any indication. “Where is he?”  
> “He’s in his room,” Jack said. “Listen, Fiona, Rhys isn’t in the mood to be talking to you right now, or anyone for that matter. I only brought you in here because we don’t need people seeing you freaking out anymore than they need to see Rhys freaking out. Calm your tits then go back to your room.”  
> “You do not ever tell me to calm my tits again, you psychopathic murderer! You did this, didn’t you. I knew we couldn’t trust you but Rhys is just so dumb.”  
> Jack laughed, “As flattered as I am, that was all Rhysie back there. His decision, his actions. If you have a problem with him and how he’s running his company, I’m sure he wouldn’t be afraid to throw the draft of a contract we have with you in the trash and kick you out of the station.”  
> “Are you threatening me?”  
> “No, just being honest.” Jack shrugged. “Listen, he’s… he’s actually pretty messed up by this, so give him a couple of hours to sleep and let the whole act settle in before you start coming in here throwing punches. You might be liable to set him off to do more things you consider stupid.”  
> [JACK IS BEING NICE IN HOW RHYS IS RESPONDING TO THIS. HE IS A COMPLETE MESS RIGHT NOW.]


	6. Fuster Cluck

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Well, let me just say, Rhys, I am proud of how you handled that. Don’t take shit from anybody and you will be an unstoppable force.”  
> Rhys felt an unfamiliar sensation rush through him at Jack’s praise. A desperation to hear him praise him again. He couldn’t help but grin to himself while Jack hummed thoughtfully.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I actually had to take a lot that I wanted to happen this chapter and move it into the next chapter, or otherwise this chapter would have been about 3 times as long. But, I was also thinking of trying to make my chapters longer. I know they aren't short-short, but I feel as though sometimes they're lacking. I did start writing up an outline for this story, so hopefully there's less inconsistencies and things start to mesh better, but that also means that updates might take longer.
> 
> I've also returned to work (for now, have no idea what this pandemic will cause for me and my job), so updates will naturally take longer now as I'm not home 24 hours a day.
> 
> As always, thank you for reading. I appreciate every kudos and comment with every fiber of my being.

Rhys approached the secretary stationed in front of Yvette’s office. “Hey, hi. Pardon me.”

The secretary looked up and a palpable fear crossed his face. “P-President Rhys, s-sir. How unexepected.”

Rhys frowned some, “Hey now, there’s no need to be so nervous. Can you let Yvette know I’m here to take her out for lunch?”

“Of course, sir,” he leaned toward a microphone and pressed a button. “Yvette, ma’am? President Rhys is here to take you for lunch?” Yvette didn’t respond and the secretary swallowed hard, looking at his computer screen intensely. Rhys’ stomach dropped slightly at the reaction and he straightened up, moving away from the secretary’s desk. A few seconds later, Yvette was stepping out of her office, beaming. 

“I wasn’t expecting lunch to happen so soon!” She said, throwing her arm around his shoulder.

Rhys chuckled and rolled his eyes, playfully pushing her away. “I don’t have anywhere to be until 17:00,” he told her. “I’ll be working on emails the entire time, but I can multitask.”

“Hey, as long as you’re buying, I don’t care how little conversation happens.” She turned to face her secretary before they stepped out. “Hey, make sure to field my calls for now. Reschedule them for after 17:30tt.”

Before the secretary could even answer, Yvette was pushing Rhys out of the door. “I have already decided that you’re going to take me to the swankiest restaurant this space station has to offer.”

“I don’t even know what one that would be. I’ve been having food brought to my office. Well, Jack’s been ordering it.”

“Doesn’t want you interacting with the common folk?”

“What? No,” he said defensively. “Handsome Jack wasn’t necessarily the most liked person here. And I was kind of, admittedly, a nobody. For my safety, I’m eating in the office.”

“If you’re so concerned about your safety, how come you’re out here now?” She put her hand on her hip and gave him a judgemental look. 

Rhys pointed behind him with his thumb, where Loaderbot was walking behind them by about five meters. “I’ve got a bodyguard on me. Plus, Jack has access to surveillance of this station at all times.I don’t really know how it works, him being plugged into the Helios system and all, but it’s pretty efficient. A little jealous, actually,” he laughed.

She rolled her eyes in response, pushing him to start walking again. “Well, luckily for you, I  _ do _ know the best place to dine on all of Helios. Surprised you don’t know, given your love for Handsome Jack,” she teased.

“I am not in love with Handsome Jack,” he said defensively.

“Never said that,” she said. “Anyways,  _ The Diamond Stallion _ . Jack’s favourite restaurant on Helios. He stated that it was not only the best restaurant in this galaxy system, but one of the best in the whole universe - excluding any restaurants on Earth, of course. That was his disclaimer.”

“Oh, I have heard of that place. Yeah, it is pretty swanky.”

“And as the owner of the restaurant,” she tailed off, voice suggestive.

“I can…get us free food!”

“Yes!” She said excitedly, “You don’t pay for food at the restaurant you own! Rhys, don’t you understand the many doors of opportunity this opens for us?”

He gave her a playful glare. “For us? You mean for me?”

“Well, technically, yes, for you. But you’ve never been a selfish person, Rhys,” she patted him on the back. “Your friends benefit from your success, too.”

He scratched the side of his neck, making a face. “Yeah, you’re right. Maybe I’m too generous.”

“No, Rhys,” she said confidently. “You are the perfect amount of generous.” They entered the elevator that would lead them to the upper food courts, where  _ The Diamond Stallion _ would be located. 

As they got closer, Rhys began to become more and more nervous. Each time he prepared to do something that would cement his role as President, he felt an relentless anxiety that at any moment, Jack would come and sweep it all out from under his feet. The elevator dinged and opened, to reveal a moderately busy area. Some of the restaurants were queues, but a few others with closed off entrances were sit downs, and expensive.  _ The Diamond Stallion _ was dead center, straight ahead from the elevator, with a grandiose sculpture of a diamond horse, reared back on either side of the entrance. The glass was dark, and from inside came a purple hue. When Rhys and Yvette arrived closer, a bouncer in a professional suit approached them. 

“Please follow me, sir,” she said, holding open the door for the pair. Yvette looked up at Rhys and gave him an ecstatic grin. The bouncer led them to a table on an upper balcony. “We welcome you to  _ The Diamond Pony _ , President Rhys. Under the table is a button that you may press in the event of an emergency. It leads you directly to an escape pod capable of holding two people. To maintain the atmosphere, your robot is not allowed inside the dining area, but we do have him in a small room off by the main entrance.”

“There are multiple armed guards located around the restaurant to ensure that you have an uneventful and pleasant dining experience. Someone will be with you shortly to take your drink order. Please, enjoy.” She gave a polite nod before walking away.

Yvette let out an impressed whistle. “Armed guards in a restaurant. What a life to live, Rhys.”

“Yeah,” he sighed. “Honestly not quite as glamorous as I expected it to be. A whole lot of reading, though. It’s so funny, my aspirations only really went as far as to be a department executive. I just wanted Henderson’s job, and now, I’m the freaking President  _ and _ CEO of Hyperion. This entire business is mine to own and do with as I so please.”

“That’s a lot of responsibility,” she said.

“Yeah.”

A waiter came to their table for their drink order, and Rhys stuck with water despite Yvette ordering the most expensive alcoholic drink on the menu. He simply rolled his eyes at her.

“So, tell me,” Yvette said, crossing her hands. “What’s it like working alongside big, bad Handsome Jack?”

“Honestly? Kind of really fucking cool,” he said with a small, breathy laugh. “There’s a reason he was a good leader. Did he do bad things? Yes. But, Yvette,” he shook his head. “He’s an amazing business man. He captures his audience. He can sell someone on  _ anything _ . It’s admirable.”

She laughed lightly, “You were always so obsessed with him. This has to be like a dream come true to you.”

“It is,” he admitted. “He’s an amazing leader. So organised and powerful and confident. I honestly don’t think I can ever be half the man he is. He’s an inspiration when it comes to the world of business. I’d be an idiot to not try and model my own practices after his.”

“So, the Kevin Masters thing is gonna be a common occurernce?”

“Fuck, no. No. I really,  _ really _ never want to have to shoot someone again,” he said, albeit quietly. “I’m hoping with every fiber of my being that once was more than enough and no one will try anything. At least for the time being so that Jack and I can weed out the problem people, and fill those roles with…” He shifted, trying to choose his words carefully.

“Rhys, you don’t have to talk pretty around me.”

“I’m trying to make Hyperion a less corrupt place. Yes, we’re still going to funnel weapons research, and we’re still going to be a part of the Galactic Weapons Trade, that’s not ending anytime soon. But I want to work on more medical research as well. Educational departments are on the horizon. I want to bring schooling and more jobs to Pandora.”

“And Jack is okay with this?”

“Yeah,” Rhys said. “He’s just here to help me achieve these goals. He said he was tired, Yvette, of the Vault Hunters. I guess finding out you died and we’re actually the bad guy in the story is a good way to get a taste of reality. He’s letting me take the lead, but I promised to not put him on the back burner. I honestly think he’s an incredibly important component of Hyperion. This company wouldn’t be where it is now if it weren’t for him.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Yvette said, taking a sip of her drink almost as soon as it was set down in front of her. They gave their food orders and waited in silence for a moment. “So, I’ve been meaning to ask this, but couldn’t find a good time.” She set her drink down and folded her hands in her lap, suddenly looking serious. “What happened to Vaughn?”

“Vaughn?” Rhys sucked in a shaky breath. “I honestly don’t know. We got seperated. I tried to call him about an hour ago, but the connection couldn’t hold. Not long enough to be traced at least. I plan to try again later, but he sounded like he was in the middle of something dangerous, so I didn’t try right away. I don’t want to be the reason he…”

“It would be nice if he were here with us,” she said softly.

“I’m going to do my best to get him back,” Rhys promised. “I wouldn’t be here today without the both of you. It’s not fair that we reap the rewards and he’s stuck fighting to survive.”

The food arrived quickly, which was a surprise to Rhys, but he supposed with as expensive as this place was, the foot traffic wasn’t too bad. The food smelt amazing, and it made his mouth water. He and Yvette ate in silence for a moment, both savouring the delicious dishes presented to them. About halfway through their meal, Rhys received a ping from Jack. “Sorry, Yvette, Jack’s calling.” He answered, opting to just use a voice channel instead of pulling up Jack’s hologram. “Yeah?”

_ “Hey, you might want to get your ass back to the office. Fiona is here and says if you don’t get here soon, she’s going to track you down and - what was it you said you were going to do, Fiona?”  _ Jack paused for a moment,  _ “Ah, yes. She said she was going to turn you inside out and make you eat your own stomach.” _

Rhys winced, suddenly losing his appetite. “Okay, tell her I’ll be there in thirty minutes.” He hung up and sighed. “Sorry, Yvette. I’ve got Vault Hunter business to attend.”

She frowned slightly. “I’m not gonna get stuck with a bill am I?”

He laughed and shook his head, “No, I’ll make sure of that. Enjoy the rest of your meal,” he stood up. “I’ll talk to you later, alright?”

“See you ‘round, Rhys.”

  
  


The walk back to his office was nerve wracking. The only source of comfort he found was that Loaderbot was walking slightly behind him. “Loaderbot,” he said, “Do you think Fiona is really going to kill me?”

_ [IT WOULD NOT SURPRISE ME. SHE WAS VERY ANGRY WITH YOU.] _

Rhys sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “How do I even try to explain this all to her?”

_ [I BELIEVE HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY.] _

“Yeah, but even the truth isn’t pretty. Nothing I say is going to make her happy.” He groaned. “I’m a dead man walking, Loaderbot.”

_ [THAT IS MOST LIKELY AFFIRMATIVE.] _ He waved goodbye as the elevator closed around Rhys. 

Almost as soon as the doors opened, Fiona was reaching in and pulling Rhys out. “You lying psychopath!” She threw Rhys against the empty desk near the entrance. “I cannot believe you! I can’t. I’m reeling with shock and anger right now.”

“Fiona, I-”

“Don’t even  _ talk _ to me, Rhys,” she spat. “I trusted you. I trusted that you were going to be different that Handsome Jack, you  _ promised _ . And not even a full fucking two days into being President, you shoot someone! On a live broadcast across the entire station! What the  _ actual fuck _ where you even thinking, Rhys? That I wasn’t going to see it? That I was just going to  _ accept _ it?”

“No, I knew you would be pissed,” he said, trying to straighten up.

“Sasha was right about you, you know? You really can’t be trusted. You’re just like everyone else on this forsaken space station.”

“That is not true,” he countered. “You won’t even give me the chance to explain!”

“Then explain!”

“He was a dick --”

“That doesn’t give you the right to  _ shoot him _ !” She said incredulously, throwing her hands into the air.

“He was a dick,” he said over her, “And if I let him walk over me, then no one here would respect me or listen to me, and I’d be dealing with a lot more than you being angry at me right now.”

“So you  _ fire _ him, Rhys. You don’t shoot him, for fuck’s sake! Are you fucking dumb?” She shook her head, disgust evident on her face. “You know, honestly, I’m pissed. I’m furious with you. But overall, I just feel fucking betrayed.” She crossed her arms and shook her head, looking away from Rhys. “I’m just really disappointed in you.”

That was like a bullet to his heart. Those were words he hadn’t heard in a very long time; not since he left home. Not since the last time he saw his father. They were words he was all too familiar with, words that left him feeling empty and shut down. He slumped, and started toward the main office, away from the empty cubicles. Fiona followed him, angered again by his response of walking away. “And just  _ where _ are you going?” She demanded, grabbing at his lower arm with a tight grip. It hurt, not a lot, but just enough to make Rhys freeze in his tracks. He was all too familiar with what happened after someone said they were disappointed in you. He knew the routine; he was well versed. He kept his eyes lowered and his expression as neutral as he could maintain. He wasn’t even nervous anymore. He just wanted it to be over and done with.

“Don’t ignore me,” she said. “You fucked up, Rhys. At least fucking own up to it.”

“What do you want me to say?” He mumbled. Fiona stewed for a moment, apparently just as frustrated with her lack of answer as she was with Rhys walking away. “Want me to say I’m sorry? Because I am. But what does it change? I can’t reverse time.” When the realisation that the cycle wasn’t going to complete sank in, he shook his arm from her grasp. “I’m not happy with what I did, Fiona. I’m disappointed enough with myself, I don’t need you adding on to it, too.”

She stood there, looking bewildered as Rhys started toward his office again. He began to read through emails at a frantic pace, needing something to take his mind off of the memories and feelings. She followed after him, heels clacking on the hard floors. 

“If it wasn’t Kevin Masters,” he said, “It would have been someone else. That’s how Hyperion is, but I’m trying to change it. But that will never happen if no one gives me the chance to make a fucking difference.” He sat at his desk, frowning. “Now get out of my office. You ruined my lunch and most likely the rest of my day, too. At least let me focus on my work. Or do you not want to open that Vault?”

She stood there, angrily glaring for a while. “Fine. But maybe, when you have a moment to stop brewing in your own misery, come say hi to Gortys. Some friend you are,” she said as she turned on her heel to leave.

“We’re not friends,” he said after her, not looking up from his monitor. “Temporary alliance, remember?”

She stood there and glared for another moment before storming off. When she was gone, Jack whistled lowly.

_ “Damn, Rhysie. That’s the coldest I’ve seen you act toward someone yet.” _

“Fiona thinks she gets to control my life, but she doesn’t even  _ know _ me,” he said, firing away emails. “I’m sick of people telling me what to do, and I’m sick of people thinking they can just yell at me when I do something they don’t like.” He shoved himself away from the desk and stood up, going to stare out the window. He had his arms crossed, and was hugging himself. “She’s set these standards and expectations for me in her head, and gets disappointed in me when I fail to reach them? What kind of double standard is that? If I dare step out of line the slightest bit, to her, I’m a fucking monster. But she tries to kill me? Never trusts me and always doubts me? Screams at me? And it’s wrong of  _ me _ to get mad at her?” He scoffed, scuffing his foot off of the ground. 

_ “Well, let me just say, Rhys, I am proud of how you handled that. Don’t take shit from  _ anybody _ and you will be an unstoppable force.” _

Rhys felt an unfamiliar sensation rush through him at Jack’s praise. A desperation to hear him praise him again. He couldn’t help but grin to himself while Jack hummed thoughtfully.

_ “So, uh, is being told you’re a disappointment like a trigger or something, kiddo? Because I’m pretty well known for throwing that out there and I don’t need you shutting down on me when we’re trying to get work done. Should we get you some therapy or…?” _

Rhys frowned. “I don’t need therapy. I’m fine. If anyone should see a therapist it’s you,” he said, returning to his desk.

_ “Hey now, Rhysie,”  _ Jack said with exaggerated offense,  _ “I’m just trying to make sure I don’t set you off, okay? One unstable President is enough.” _

Rhys sighed, and absentmindedly drew on the desk with his finger. “I heard it a lot growing up, so it just kind of puts me in a bad headspace. But I’m functional, and not going to just turn off or something.”

_ “People were disappointed in you? Hard to imagine. You seem like a hard worker, and you get results. You’ve yet to disappoint me, and I’m easy to disappoint.” _

“My father was difficult to please,” Rhys said, explaining no further. 

_ “Yeah,"  _ Jack said softly.  _ "I know what that's like. Well, sort of. My father died when I was really young and my paternal grandmother ended up raising me. Mother was a druggie, and my grandma  _ hated  _ her."  _ He laughed, but Rhys knew that kind of laugh. It was the laugh of someone reliving pain.  _ "She always said I looked more like my mother, so that in turn meant she hated me, too. Nothing I ever did was good enough for her, no matter how hard I tried." _

"Sometimes I can't tell if you're mocking me, or actually trying to relate with me," Rhys mumbled.

_ "I'm dead serious right now. My grandma was a horrible bitch. I killed her a couple of years back,"  _ he said nonchalantly,  _ "Probably one of my most cathartic murders. Her, Tassiter, and Roland." _

"I'm so glad I can share this touching moment with you," he said dryly. "But if this is your way of saying I should murder my dad, don't bother. I'm happier living with the knowledge that he'll rot in that hellhole of a home."

_ "Wouldn't it be even better if he could see the man you've grown into?" _

Rhys shrugged. "It's not worth the energy, in my opinion. I'd rather just leave him in the past."

_ “That’s fair enough,” _ Jack said.

Rhys sighed and glanced at the time. “I wish this day would hurry up and be over and done with,” he groaned, rubbing his temple in front of his implant. "I am not looking forward to any of these meetings," he admitted. "I'm just in a bad mood now."

_ "Perfect,"  _ Jack said enthusiastically.  _ "You shot a guy earlier and now you're pissed off. No one is going to want to fuck with you this time."  _ He clapped his hands together on the screen.  _ "Chop chop, Rhys. Let's get some work done. Channel that anger into progress. It's the best way to get anything around here done, anyways." _

Rhys sighed, slumping in the chair, and got back to work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I also want to note that I will no longer be doing End Note stories. They were fun, but I've already run out of ideas, and any other ones I have might spoil the story.


	7. oberkill

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [Rhys] took a deep breath and turned to his emails. He scowled when he saw he had not just one, not just two, but fifty-seven emails from the sender HJ. He opened up the most recent one.
> 
> 'Hey dick face  
> Stop ignoring me, ass suck. I have things I want to say. Turn me back on or I’ll download a bunch of skag porn on your desktop and set it up so randomly your things open up as the skag porn instead of whatever you clicked on.  
> Ever want to safely send files in emails again? Then turn me back on.  
> -xoxo Handsome Jack, who you should so obviously be eternally fucking grateful toward because he landed you this sick ass gig, so turn that fucking monitor back on you dinglefuck.'

An afternoon and evening filled with board meetings and conference calls left Rhys with his face flat on the desk in front of him. He groaned as his ECHOeye pinged to inform him of yet another email arriving in his inbox. He opened it and scanned the contents quickly before dismissing it as a later priority. He turned off his emails and straightened up, eyes floating to the picture of the young girl that sat on Jack’s desk. Well, Rhys’ desk now. He still hadn’t gotten around to organising it to his liking. That would come with time. He picked up the picture and spun the chair around to face Pandora.

“Hey, Jack. Can we talk for a second?”

_ “Sure, cupcake,” _ Jack said, dismissing something from his screen and swiveling down to Rhys’ level.  _ “What about?” _

Rhys held up the picture. “Your daughter. You mentioned wanting to go see her. Where is she?”

Jack was quiet for a long time. His silence made Rhys’ skin crawl. He turned the picture back to face him, and looked down at the little girl in it. She was smiling brightly, showing a missing tooth.

_ “Angel,”  _ Jack said, voice glitching on the screen.  _ “She’s, uh… Dead.” _

“What? But you mentioned wanting to see her before I plugged you in.”

_ “I didn’t know. But the information was uploaded into the Helios database. It was… all there.”  _ He looked down at Pandora, a pained look in his eyes.  _ “She… Planned her death with the help of some Vault Hunters.”  _ He closed his eyes and shook his head.  _ “It was to get back at me,”  _ he said.  _ “And, admittedly, that is the very reason I’ve been so complacent to let you take the lead, Rhys. Something was so wrong with me, I didn’t even see the pain I was causing my baby girl. I… regret what I’ve done. And I wish I could change things, but I can’t. Somehow, I was given a second chance, and this time, I’ll be a person Angel would have been proud of.” _

“I… get that you weren’t a great person, but why would your daughter kill herself to hurt you?”

_ “It wasn’t to -- to hurt me. It was to show me that I’d gone off the deep end. I…”  _ He shook his head again, a look of agony contorting his features. He glitched out a few times.  _ “I’m d-done talking about her.” _ He pulled the screen back some before flickering out of view.

“Jack?” Rhys called out to the room. When he received no response, he called out again, “Jack? Please come back.” Jack, however, did not return. Rhys sighed heavily and looked at the picture of Angel again. His heart twisted in sadness for Jack. What pain and trauma had the other endured to end up as Handsome Jack?

He set the picture back down and pulled up Vaughn’s information again. He crossed his fingers as he tried to call the other. His stomach sank when the ringing eventually led to a dial tone. He let it drone on for a moment before hanging up. His head was pounding, but despite this, he tried to work through more of the never ending emails and paperwork.

The hours ticked by, and before long, it was a quarter til 22tt. Rhys groaned when he realised he had spent the past 14 hours chugging along, and that lunch time was a surprisingly long time ago. His stomach growled as if to second that thought. He grumbled, not wanting to leave his office to get food, but he was also aware of the fact that food would definitely make him feel better. He called up Yvette.

_ “What’s up, Rhys?” _

“Did you eat dinner yet?”

_ “I had a sandwich but I won’t pass up the opportunity for free food.” _

“If I place an order at the Bistro, would you pick it up and bring it here to me? You can get whatever you want, on me.”

_ “Bribing me with food just so you can live the pampered lifestyle?” _

“I have a headache,” he whined, pouting even though she couldn’t see his face.

_ “Fine, fine. Your Royal Highness,”  _ she teased.  _ “I’ll grab your food but I hope you know I’m getting the most expensive drink they have there.” _

“I honestly don't care. Treat yourself, Yvette.” He hung up and placed his order, closing his eyes and laying his head on his desk. Today had been exhausting. He wanted no more surprises, no more threats, just no more funny business.

It was as if on queue, an incoming communication alert for the station went off. Rhys sat up and Jack finally reappeared on his monitor, frowning.  _ “Incoming communication from Pandora. Can’t pinpoint the location, they must be using something to jam the GPS. Accept?” _

“Yeah, go ahead.”

On a separate screen, Jack broadcasted the communication. Standing in front of the camera was the renowned Vault Hunter and Siren, Lilith. Jack frowned deeply, angling his screen so he couldn’t be seen. “Rhys Strongfork?”

“That’s me, yes,” Rhys said. “Lilith, the Firehawk, right? I’ve heard about you.”

“Most people have,” she laughed. “It’s funny, I never heard about you until today. You Hyperion assholes can be pretty dumb, you know? Did you forget about your Hyperion Radio Broadcast? And how all of Pandora is able to listen in on it?”

_ “Shoot _ ,” Jack hissed.

“We know Handsome Jack is back. We don’t know how, and we don’t know why, but we  _ will _ stop whatever it is you’re planning.”

“Wait, wait a second,” Rhys said, holding his hands up. “We aren’t planning anything.”

“You think I’m so dumb as to believe that?” She scoffed, “I killed Handsome Jack once, and I’m not above having to kill you in order to stop him again. You picked your side when you brought him back into the playing field, so be prepared to defend it. We’ve already sent a Vault Hunter your way, and if you’re lucky, he might spare your life. He’s not about collateral damage.”

Rhys shook his head in disbelief, “Are you serious right now?”

_ “I’m willing to bet she’s very serious,” _ Jack said quietly from behind Rhys.

“I’m dead fucking serious,” she said. “Goodbye, Rhys.”

Her screen went to static before Jack shut it off.  _ “Okay, Rhysie. What’s the course of action?” _

“Lock down the entire station. Get everyone to their rooms, and get Fiona, Gortys, and Loaderbot into this office. Station wide broadcast, now.”

_ “And you’re on,” _ Jack said, recording Rhys.

Rhys faced the screen. “Attention, everyone. A very dangerous individual is on his way here to Helios. I am mandating a lock down, all employees, and I mean  _ all _ , are to report to their respective dorms immediately. Security personnel is to ensure all residents are in their dorms before reporting to their own. Fiona, Gortys, and Loaderbot, please report to my office immediately. Dismissed.”

Jack ended the recording.  _ “I’m checking the surveillance and it appears as though most employees listened right away. Guards are directing traffic. People are clearing out fast. I’ll keep an eye out for any stragglers and lock down areas and dorms as we go.” _

“Good, good. Yvette, can you hear me?”

_ “Yeah, Rhys, what’s going on?” _

“We’ll have to take a rain check. Please go to your suite and stay safe, okay? I’ll explain later, but right now you need to go.”

_ “Rhys, I’m heading your way, but what the heck is going on?”  _ Chimed in Fiona’s voice. He switched over to that voice channel. 

“The Firehawk and her gang of Vault Hunters, the ones who killed Handsome Jack, know he’s alive. And they’re sending someone to the station as we speak. I have no idea how long it’ll take for him to get here, but it’s best to start planning ASAP.”

_ “Uuugh, I  _ knew _ having Jack around was going to be a bad idea, _ ” She groaned, exasperation evident in her voice.  _ "Gortys and I are heading your way now." _ He heard the click of her hanging up.

It only took the three of them about twenty minutes to arrive in the office, but the lockdown of the station took almost two hours. By the end of it, Rhys' nerves were shot. He contacted each supervisor of the dorms to ensure all employees were accounted for, and it was only after the final confirmation of all employees being homebound that he was able to stop pacing the office. He spoke over the PA system. "I wish I could give you all a timeline of how long this will last, but I don't want to make any promises I can't keep. From here on out, business will run strictly over emails and conference calls. Please conduct business as usual from your homes." He sighed as he hung up and turned to face a waiting and angry looking Fiona.

"A Vault Hunter is on his way to do something about Jack's AI," he said. "I don't know who, or what he'll do, but we need to be prepared."

"Wouldn't it just be easier to hand Jack over?"

_ "I'm hurt you'd just throw me away,"  _ Jack said coolly, placing a hand over his heart.  _ "After everything I've done for Pandora, too." _

"You're a murderer," she seethed. "You've never done anything good for me or anyone else. Everything you've done was for your own gain, your own benefit. Don't try and pull the benevolent act with me, because I know better."

Rhys stepped between them, holding a hand up toward Fiona. “I’m not handing Jack over, end of discussion there. He’s too valuable to the company.”

_ “See, I’m valuable,” _ he said, stressing the last word.

Fiona sneered at Jack. “So, what? The plan is to just cower and wait?”

“Wait, yes. Cower, no. The plan is to have the turrets ready should the Vault Hunter cause any trouble at the loading dock, but we will let him land. Diplomacy is our only option right now. If we can prove to them that Jack is harmless, maybe they’ll just leave us alone.”

“You’re way too optimistic, Rhys,” Fiona said.

_ “Actually, kiddo. I agree with her. These aren’t just any Vault Hunters. Lilith is the one who blew a giant fucking hole into my chest and killed me. Anyone who works with her is almost just as formidable as her. Christ, Rhys, they killed me when I had the power of the Vault Monster on my side.”  _ He shook his head.  _ “I’m only saying this because these people cannot be trusted or shrugged aside. This is a really big deal. If they send that Brick guy up here, he’ll bust through the dock doors faster than the turrets can aim at him. And he’s not really diplomatic.” _

“Then do you have a better plan?”

_ “Yeah. Shoot down the fucking rocket before it gets here, and shoot down any other ships that try to make their way here. Then we hope and fucking pray that Lilith can’t teleport from Pandora to Helios. Just fucking massacre the Vault Hunters as they come until they’ve exhausted their resources and they surrender, or we just keep on killing them.” _

The stark frown on Fiona’s face told him he should disagree with that plan, despite how it did sound much easier and efficient. Except the whole praying part. He hadn’t struck Jack as the praying type. He sighed, “Sorry, Jack, but that can’t happen.”

Jack groaned, rage flickering just behind his eyes.  _ “You are so incredibly stupid and naive sometimes, okay? You have no idea what these monsters are capable of. They don’t do diplomacy. I tried diplomacy. They only know violence and death, and that’s the only way to get through to them.” _

“We aren’t going to blindly massacre them all.”

_ “THEY KILLED ME!” _

“You kind of deserved it,” Fiona said, tilting her head to the side and placing a hand on her hip. “Actually, scratch that. You totally deserved it.”

He scoffed,  _ “I cannot believe you just bought into their bandit propaganda. They are the very people I was trying to protect Pandora from.” _

“Propaganda?” She laughed bitterly. “There was no bandit propaganda, you psychopath. You were killing innocent people on Pandora. Your eridium mining was destroying the planet and getting our friends and families killed.  _ You _ made the bandit problem worse by sucking dry entire communities, already struggling communities! It’s because of you that my parents are dead.”

The silence that followed was so thick that Rhys felt like he couldn’t breath, lest the fury residing in both Jack and Fiona right now be unleashed onto him. He looked off to the side and saw Gortys hiding behind Loaderbot, a distraught expression on her surprisingly emotive face. He slipped away from the two angrily glaring at each other to crouch beside Gortys. “Hey,” he said softly so that the others wouldn’t hear him. “I know everything’s kind of scary right now, and I haven’t really had the opportunity to fill you, but I want you to know that everything will be okay.”

She looked over at Jack and Fiona before looking back at Rhys. “Even with them?”

He frowned, “That’s… different. Difficult. At the end of the day, though, we’ll all have to work together despite our feelings. It’s for everyone’s best interests. I know so far you’ve had pretty much free reign to explore Helios, but right now, I don’t want you to leave this office, okay? And when that Vault Hunter gets here, you’re going to have to hide in my bedroom. We can’t have these people knowing about you. It’s too dangerous.”

“Okay,” she said. “I think I understand. Thank you for being honest with me,” she said, giving him a small hug. He felt his heart strings tug. “You’re a good friend, Rhys.”

He let out a nervous chuckle and gave her a gentle hug back. He stood up and flashed a smile at Loaderbot. Loaderbot was still for a moment before lifting up his arms and giving Rhys two thumbs up. Rhys flashed them back, before putting on a serious face again.

He cleared his throat and stepped back over to the still silently glaring pair. They both turned to look at him, and he actually took a step back, holding his hands up. “Woah, guys, calm down. Okay? Right now is really not the time to be bickering. We need to remain level-headed, and put aside our personal grievances with each other. For all of our best interests, but most importantly, it dawned on me that if these Vault Hunters find out about Gortys, they may want her for their own gain. And if they are as awful people as Jack feels like they are--”

_ “Oh, they are awful, Rhys,” _ Jack interjected, seething with his jaw clenched so tight that the veins on his neck were standing out. Weird, that so much detail had gone into the realism of this AI, yet unsurprising based off of what was known about Handsome Jack and his obvious self-infatuation.

“And if they are as awful people as Jack says they are,” he repeated, louder to cover up anything else Jack may be trying to say, “Then we should put Gortys’ safety above our own self interests and come up with a common ground plan on how to deal with these people. I feel for Gortys’ best interest, we approach them with as civil and diplomatic an appeal we can. We prove to them we hold no threat and that we will leave them alone, and then they agree to leave us alone.”

_ “You are so optimistic it is sickening,” _ Jack said.  _ “Regardless, I don’t have access to the weapons.” _ His voice was bitter and angry.  _ “Honestly, I’m feeling really fucking stupid right now,” _ he said.  _ “Why the  _ hell _ did I agree to give up  _ my _ access to  _ my _ weapons? I should have known you would just try to undermine me entirely. You’re going to hand me over to these fuckers on a silver goddamn platter now and I’m going to have to sit here and fucking watch like some fucking --”  _ He made a strangled noise between a scream and growl, pacing on the screen.  _ “Honestly, Rhys? I’m just fucking disappointed that I trusted you to make the smart decisions.”  _ He stopped pacing and stared at Rhys was a level expression. But in his eyes, there was an crazy rage flickering, threatening to spill over. But there was nothing Jack could do. He was powerless to retaliate in any other way.

Rhys went stiff while Jack had been speaking, heart thudding painfully. Instead of the overwhelming fear he usually felt, he was starting to fill with his own heated rage. He stormed over to the monitor Jack was on. “You,” he hissed. “Can get the fuck out of here.” He flicked off the monitor screen, powering it down. He expected Jack to return in an instant, but instead of the large monitor, Jack reappeared on Rhys’ smaller desk screen.

_ “You son of a fucking bitch,” _ he hissed.  _ “Did you really turn that monitor off? Fuck. You. You low-grade, sniveling, whiny, li--” _ Rhys cut Jack off by shutting off his desk monitor as well.

He immediately got a ping to his ECHOeye from Jack, but muted his notifications. He sighed and sat on the ledge of his desk before looking apologetically at Fiona. “Sorry. It’s funny, I haven’t actually invoked his rage yet. I’ve been worried about how I’d respond but, really, what’s he going to do? Bitch at me?” He let out a weak chuckle.

Fiona’s eyes were wide. “Wow.”

“Wow?”

“That was kind of… I mean, like, I know he’s just an AI. But like… you turned off Handsome Jack. Like, you literally just told him to fuck off and turned him off like he was just some annoying scam caller.” She laughed, sounding slightly hysterical.

“Fiona… you okay?”

“Yeah, I just… It’s so funny. Seeing Handsome Jack reduced to a monitor? Honestly, it’s even better than hearing he died. You really do have this under control. Jack can’t do anything violent or deadly.” She crossed her arms, looking smug. “I’m impressed, Rhys.”

“Yeah, tried to tell you that,” He said. “When will you learn that you actually  _ can _ trust me?”

“I think that right there was a step in the right direction.”

He sighed, “Here’s the plan. We keep the station on lockdown until all possibilities of this Vault Hunter being a threat are eliminated. I’m going to keep business running as usual, but just have the employees work from their dorms and suites. You’ll be free to come and go, but try to stick to either your room or this office, okay? And, this is really important: Gortys stays in here.”

“In here?” She repeated.

“Yeah, so obviously you can come see her. But when the Vault Hunter gets here, she has to hide in my room. I don’t want her to be far away when they arrive, in case they try to head straight to the office.”

“So you want her hidden near the office in case they try and come to the office?”

“Fiona, they will never find the room. The door is seamless and there are no exterior windows, so they can’t even tell it’s there. We usher her in there the  _ moment _ the Vault Hunter enters close space. They won’t think to look for her, because they won’t know about her.”

“Okay… That sounds like a solid plan on keeping Gortys safe. But what about the Vault Hunter?”

“Like I said, diplomacy, and hope they’re receptive. We won’t aim guns on them when they land, but we will lock them out, and we can have guns aimed at the inside of the door, and have guards out front. We speak to them from here and try to coerce them into having a peaceful conversation with us.”

“And what’s our conversation going to be? Please don’t kill us, we promise Handsome Jack is harmless? Do you know how crazy it sounds? I just witnessed that he’s  _ literally _ incapable of doing anything dangerous and it even sounds crazy to me.”

“Then we show them.”

“By showing them that his personality isn’t actually any different, you just like listening to his chatter in the background?” 

“What? What the heck? Fiona!” He was aghast. That was the only way to describe the emotion that made his face flare up and his stomach twist uncomfortably. “I prove to them that I’m only trying to use him for valuable business insight, and to learn from his methods so that I can be something different. Fuck, Fiona, I’ll pull out my my extensive step-by-step plan on how to wack away at the corruption going on here on Helios and how I’ve already started making improvements and changes.”

“And what about the part where you shot a guy.”

Rhys winced, the sick feelings bubbling in his gut at the thought. “We… don’t tell them I shot a guy.”

“And when they inevitably find out?”

Rhys didn’t have an answer, anxiety brewing in his chest. He took a deep breath and turned to his emails. He scowled when he saw he had not just one, not just two, but  _ fifty-seven _ emails from the sender  _ HJ. _ He opened up the most recent one.

_ Hey dick face _

_ Stop ignoring me, ass suck. I have things I want to say. Turn me back on or I’ll download a bunch of skag porn on your desktop and set it up so randomly your things open up as the skag porn instead of whatever you clicked on. _

_ Ever want to safely send files in emails again? Then turn me back on. _

_ -xoxo Handsome Jack, who you should so obviously be eternally fucking grateful toward because he landed you this sick ass gig, so turn that fucking monitor back on you dinglefuck. _

Rhys frowned, and after only a second of thought, decided the risk of leaving him turned off was just not worth it. He sighed and got up, turning the large monitor Jack used back on. Jack flickered on immediately, his rage so seething that the screen glitched out and made him skip like a scratched disk.  _ “Y-y-y-you are so-ho-ho-oh lucky that I do not have h-hands right now, Rh-Rhys becau-cause I swear, I would have just strang-strangled you and thrown y-you out into the ever gr-growing colony of cor-corpses that orbits He-Helios!” _

Rhys crossed his arms and frowned at Jack. It was easy to not be scared of Jack when he was stuck in that screen. “Either calm the fuck down, or go away,” he said. “If this is how you’re going to behave, then I don’t want or need your input on the situation. Fiona and I have already discussed it -- civilly may I add -- and have come to most of an agreement. At the very least, I think we came to an understanding.”

“Honestly, it’s the best shot we have, despite it’s glaring flaws. The one least likely to get us  _ all _ killed.”

Jack continued to glitch on the screen, but he was quiet, after a few moments, of furious glaring, his video settled.  _ “I heard you. I think it’s stupid to not have guns pointed at them the second they land, because guns inside the door won’t really help when some of them can fucking turn invisible and shit, okay?” _

“Then do guns even matter at all?”   
_ “Guns are definitely better than no guns,”  _ he said nastily.  _ “Are you just trying to be fucking stupid now?” _

“You know -- haha -- I really don’t appreciate you talking to me like that, Jack, and I’m serious when I say I’ll turn you off again. I’ll take my chances with the skag porn.”

“What?” Fiona said.

_ “Fine, fine,”  _ Jack said, sighing angrily and rolling his eyes in exasperation.  _ “I’ll be nice. My apologies,” _ he said dryly.  _ “I stand by what I said about guns, though. Always guns, all the time. You never say no to guns. That is officially Rule Number One of Running an RFMC.” _

“RFMC?” Fiona asked.

_ “Really Fucking Massive Corporation. Seriously, not making sure your guns are already aimed on potential threats is literally the  _ best _ way to get yourself fucking killed. Trust me. I waited too long to take action on these freaks, and I refuse to not be ready to pull the trigger if necessary. They killed me once, I will not let them take me down again.” _

"Can't believe this is happening, but," Fiona sighed dramatically, "I agree with Handsome Jack. They're going to expect guns aimed at them anyways."

"Fine. Outside turrets will auto lock on the ship. Happy?"

_ "Appeased, for now." _

"Okay, Fiona, I think you're safe to go back to your suite, if you want. But, uh, take Loaderbot with you."

"You're sending me off with a security guard?"

"Hey, it's Loaderbot. Hes cool. " He waved at Loaderbot, who returned the gesture. "Just… for extra security, okay? People are going to be on edge and who knows how long we'll have to wait."

"Okay, fine. Come on Loaderbot, I'm ready to hit the sack anyways."

**[FOLLOWING.]**

Fiona and Loaderbot left, and Rhys flopped into his chair. He began to delete the fifty-seven emails from Jack when Gortys approached him. "For the record, Rhys. I think you're doing an  _ amazing _ job. I don't know much about about running a corporation, but you really seem to care about your employees. That's a part of what makes you such a good friend."

Rhys cracked her a smile, "Thanks, Gortys. I appreciate that."

When he laid down for bed that night, he realised Jack hadn't spoken to him for the remainder of the evening. An uncomfortable feeling twisted in his stomach, and he found that sleep was next to impossible.

The hours crawled by as Rhys and the rest of Helios anxiously awaited the arrival of the Vault Hunter. After forty-five hours had accumulated, Jack suddenly broke his silence and spoke to Rhys outside of important business matters.  _ “If he hasn’t shown up by the end of a whole day, I say we open back up and continue as normal until there’s more credible evidence anyone is even on their way. What if this is just a scare tactic to reduce our productivity and scare us into submission?” _

“I don’t think they make empty threats,” Rhys said, surprised Jack was actually speaking to him. “But that sounds reasonable, actually. I don’t want people to be cooped up for too long. Boredom is the enemy of rationality.”

_ “Who said that?” _

Rhys shrugged. “I think a college professor but I’m not really sure.” He flipped through the pages of a contract in front of him, frowning as he scanned the words. “This proposal is ridiculous, remind me later to set aside time for a meeting with the data mining department. Sometimes not right there, too.” He groaned, rolling his head back. “Is  _ every _ department here corrupt?”

_ “Hate to break it to you sweetcheeks, but, probably. _ ”

“Wonderful.”

_ “Sometimes to build it all up, you have to tear it down first. You start to measure your success by the size of the pile of destruction,” _ he said, voice filled with an emotion Rhys would call guilt if he thought Jack was actually capable of feeling any.

“There won’t be more destruction,” Rhys said, voice firm. “I will measure my success by the progress we make.”

_ “Meh, whatever helps you sleep at night,” _ Jack said, shrugging before flickering off the screen and leaving Rhys alone to his thoughts again.

Almost seventy-one hours is how long it took for the ship most likely carrying the Vault Hunter to appear in shared space with Helios. Rhys ushered Gortys into the bedroom and when Loaderbot and Fiona arrived, he instructed Loaderbot to stand just so, as to guard the wall that shielded Gortys. He stood nervously, watching the video feed of the cameras on the loading dock. The ship landed slowly and Rhys watched with bated breath as it sat there for a moment, no movement happening at all. Suddenly, the door popped out some and opened. A tall, slender person stepped out of the ship and down the steps, before turning their face to stare at one of the turrets trained on them.

“Is that Zer0?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is definitely the longest chapter yet. I don't know what I'll max out as for my longest chapter, I don't want them to be overwhelming, but I don't want them to feel too short and rushed. I want the flow of this story to feel natural, and I know I have a habit of rushing on to the next part of the story before actually taking time to appreciate where at in the story I currently am.
> 
> Please, I encourage you to leave me feedback. It only helps me grow as a writer.
> 
> Thank you, again for every hit, comment and kudos. They mean the world to me.


	8. longer ragne kilier

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Perhaps later, then. / I am, however, curious / Where is Jack right now?”  
> “Hiding, I’m willing to bet,” Fiona said. “He’s scared that you’re here. I don’t know how much stock you’ll put in my word, but even I can vouch that Handsome Jack doesn’t pose a threat. In fact, I watched Rhys turn off his display monitor in the middle of a temper tantrum. He couldn’t even turn it back on himself. I know I give Rhys a lot of shit, but I trust him on this. He’s shown that Handsome Jack can’t hurt anyone. He’s at Rhys’ mercy.”  
> “I want to see him.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fun fact, one week on pandora is equal to 630 hours, or 26.25 days on Earth.
> 
> Took a break while working on this chapter to write up some shameless smut for this pairing. This one shot is in no way related to this fic, but I offer it to you anyways: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23570173  
> Rating: Explicit

Rhys stared at the screen with a slack jaw as Fiona repeated herself. “Is that Zer0? Seriously?”

“Oh my god it’s Zer0,” Rhys said finally. “I never expected to die at his hands. Oh my god.”

_ “Can you two stop fangirling and figure out if he’s going to try and kill us or not?” _

Rhys’ attention snapped back into focus, and he watched as the Zer0 on the screen walked to the center of the loading bay, and then threw his guns onto the ground in front of him. He kept his blades on his back -- not that Rhys would blame him -- but then held his hands up as a peace offering.  _ “I offered my help / in hopes I could mediate. / I do not pose harm.” _

"Of all the Vault Hunters we could have got, we got the coolest one," Rhys said with a big grin. He deactivated the turrets in the loading bay. He leaned over to speak through the intercom. "So you're just here to talk to us?"

_ "Yes." _

"You're not going to kill us the moment we walk through the doors?"

_ "I self volunteered / so that we could avoid that. / I don't wish you death." _

Jack mumbled under his breath,  _ “You think he’s so cool, but he talks like a weirdo.” _

_ “I heard that,” _ Zer0 replied.

Fiona suppressed a small chuckle. “Okay,” Rhys said. “We’ll be down to meet you. It’ll take about twenty minutes. I hope you understand the continued presence of our guards, though.”

_ “I do understand. / Lilith’s speech must have been quite / unnerving to you.” _

“Yeah, just a little.” He hung up and he and Fiona headed toward the loading dock. Loaderbot stayed behind in the office to guard the wall hiding Gortys. “Do you think we should tell Zer0 about Gortys? He was looking for the Gortys project when that bandit took the money, remember?”

“I say, right now, no,” Fiona answered. “If he’s interested in Gortys, it might mean the others are too. That’s leverage on us if they know.”

“You’re right. Let’s hope Zer0 doesn’t end up trying to kill us afterall.” They arrived at the doors, and they opened slowly. Zer0 was still standing in the same spot he had been in on the screen, guns scattered at his feet. “Pick those up,” Rhys said with a wave of his hand to the guards, who complied. He approached Zer0 and tried to bite back a huge grin. “Is it weird to say I’m excited you’re here? You’re, like, my favourite Vault Hunter of all time. I think you’re super cool. I know I already told you that, but it’s true.”

Zer0 faced him and flashed a red  _ :) _ at him before turning it into  _ <3 _ . Rhys almost couldn’t hold back his squeal.  _ “Mordy mentioned you, / Fiona, I mean to say. / I’m interested.” _

“In me?” She asked, surprised.

_ “You’re a Vault Hunter?” _

“I-I,” she hesitated, before placing her hands on her hips and nodding firmly, “Yes, I am.”

“Shall we take this to my office? I think we’ll all be much more comfortable there.” Zer0 nodded in agreement at Rhys’ words. “And, uh, we’ll return your guns to you when you go to leave. So don’t worry about those.” It felt strange to lead Zer0 through the interior of Helios, because he knew the last time he was here, Zer0 had caused millions in damage to the station. It was almost eerie how silent the Vault Hunter was. Rhys couldn’t even hear his footsteps behind him, but when he turned around to look, Zer0 was right there, following him and looking around.

The mask made him nervous; what had once been a cool allure now was a stark realisation that Rhys had  _ no idea _ what the other person was doing. Or even who he was really. The mystery of Zer0 was no longer intriguing, but downright terrifying.

He was still cool as shit, though.

They reached the office and he grabbed a chair from one of the empty cubicles. He set it down in front of his desk before sitting in his seat. Jack was, unsurprisingly absent. He'd been absent a lot lately. “So, you’re here to talk, right?”

_ “First, I will listen / then I will ask my questions. / From there, I decide.” _

“Okay,” Rhys let out a little breath and pushed his fingers through his hair nervously. “Shortly after we parted ways, an AI version of Handsome Jack appeared in my head. Through a series of events, we were able to get back into Hyperion where Jack offered me the President and CEO positions, and I accepted. I uploaded him to the Helios database but he’s agreed to let me restrict his access to the weapons and power subsystems. The most dangerous thing he can do is open and close doors. I… I need his help to run this place, but only from a business perspective. He’s knowledgeable and a great asset to Hyperion. But I don’t want to run Hyperion like he did. I don’t want to do the same things he did. There’s good people down there on Pandora, and I want to help them. Jack is… he’s going to help me do that.”

“I -- I have a whole outline drawn up on what I want to achieve and how I plan to do it, I can walk you through it and show you that Hyperion holds absolutely no threat to the livelihoods of the people down on Pandora.”

_ “Perhaps later, then. / I am, however, curious / Where is Jack right now?” _

“Hiding, I’m willing to bet,” Fiona said. “He’s scared that you’re here. I don’t know how much stock you’ll put in my word, but even I can vouch that Handsome Jack doesn’t pose a threat. In fact, I watched Rhys turn off his display monitor in the middle of a temper tantrum. He couldn’t even turn it back on himself. I know I give Rhys a lot of shit, but I trust him on this. He’s shown that Handsome Jack can’t hurt anyone. He’s at Rhys’ mercy.”

_ “I want to see him.” _ The husky monotone of Zer0’s voice made Rhys shiver.

“Jack?” He said aloud. “Come on, now. Don’t be so rude to our guest.”

A moment of silence followed before Jack appeared on Rhys’ small monitor.  _ “Put me in your hand,” _ he said.

Rhys complied, lifting his prosthetic arm and opening his palm, a miniature full-body Jack appeared a moment later. He saw the pointed glare behind Jack’s mask and the rigid way he was holding himself.  _ “Happy?” _

Zer0’s helmet was turned so it was facing the holographic Jack, but Rhys couldn’t be certain where the other was actually looking; it was unnerving.

_ “My gun crippled you / I watched as Lilith shot you / I heard your last breaths.”  _ More silence followed his words.  _ “This is not my home / I harbour no affection. / My friends, however…”  _

_ “Your friends want me dead,"  _ Jack finished for him.  _ "Yeah, I remember you being there. It seems you and your friends did everything you could to take away everything I cared about." _

_ "Not my intentions. / I was then a hired gun / Just doing my job." _

_ "Do you really have the freakin' speak in haiku? You sound like an edgelord,"  _ Jack said with snark.

_ "No." _

_ "Then  _ why  _ do you feel the need to talk like that?" _

_ "Language is an art / I honour the spoken word. / It brings me comfort." _

_ "Yeah, well it drives me nuts,"  _ Jack seethed, turning away from the Vault Hunter some.

Zer0's mask moved to face Rhys.  _ "What do you prefer?" _

"It, uh… well it would be easier to understand you if you didn't speak in stanzas, but I won't force you to change how you speak."

_ "Appreciated / But for the ease of you all, / I will hold it back." _

_ "Thank you,"  _ Jack hissed, obviously still displeased with the whole situation.

_ "But just for you, Jack / I will continue to speak / aggravatingly."  _ Zer0 flashed Jack a  _ :) _ who grumbled and rolled his eyes. Zer0 turned back to Rhys,  _ "I am curious about your work. However, I can tell that you are tired. I do not mind if you wish to postpone until a later time to discuss those plans with me. I do, however, have another question." _

"Of course."

_ "What do you know about the Gortys Project?" _

"Th-the what?"

_ "Gortys. Project,"  _ Zer0 repeated.  _ "There was a tip off / New Haven activity / dead Hyperion." _

"Vasquez," Rhys said, cringing. 

_ "So I investigated." _

"And discovered the Atlas facility."

_ "Yes. I did not know, however, your involvement. Athena told us." _

_ "That was a haiku,"  _ Jack said.

_ :) "I did it purposefully. Good catch." _

"Wait, Athena told you we were there?

_ "Mordecai and Brick brought Athena to the Crimson Raiders -- " _

_ "UGH,"  _ Jack interrupted.

_ "Where she is being held for questioning,"  _ Zer0 continued without missing a beat despite Jack's intrusion.  _ "She told us of a robot by the name of Gortys.” _

“What is the Crimson Raiders --” 

_ “UGH!” _

“-- interest in the Gortys Project?” Rhys asked, sitting up in his chair some.

_ “They have none. I do. That is why I volunteered. I want to see it.” _

“You want to see Gortys?” Fiona sat forward. “How do we know you won’t just take it from us. If you’re interested in the Gortys Project, then it will probably be in the interest of the others.”

_ “It was a quest I took on my own. They have no knowledge of it.” _

“What’s stopping you from telling them?”

_ “I call them my friends, but I am a transient. Loyalties are short--” _

_ “Money is forever,”  _ Jack finished.  _ “So you’d ditch your dumb friends and work with us if we gave you the Gortys Project? How dumb do you think you are? Christ, and I thought you were at least one of the smarter ones. Although, I did always think it was weird a person like you would run around with some Pandoran savages. You’re obviously of a way higher class than them,” _

_ “You learn from the local populace,”  _ Zer0 responded.  _ “What I was actually saying was that I would be willing to overlook the potential dangers that follow the choice to allow Jack to live. A fair agreement: Give me access to Gortys, Jack is no danger.” _

Silence ensued, as the three of them mulled over the trade. Rhys was trying to carefully weigh out the pros and cons, but it was Jack who answered first.  _ “You have yourself a deal.” _

“What?” Fiona said, “What if he tries to take Gortys or decides to tell them we’re a danger anyways?”

Zer0’s helmet displayed a  _ :( _ as he turned to face Fiona,  _ “I am of integrity. I would not go back on my word. I cannot promise Lilith will not attempt to make restrictions on Hyperion, but I will keep her from coming here to kill all of you.” _

_ "And that is the best chance we've got, kiddos. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, unless it's a diamond one. Listen, Zer0 was there when I was taken down. Call me a coward but I don't want to die again! I've got a sweet ass new gig and, I will admit, a suitably competent business partner. Zer0 says he can keep me alive and all we have to do is talk to him -- not them -- about Gortys? Let him see the robot? What's the worst thing that can happen? He wants a cut? Give it to him."  _ Jack's voice has grown hard, he was not making a suggestion but instead giving a command.

_ “What is your plan with the Gortys Project?” _

“Uh, Jack, could you please go to your normal monitor? I need my hands.”

Jack grumbled before flickering away and appearing on the large monitor. He was pouting, his head turned away from Zer0, and arms crossed over his chest.

Rhys pulled up plans he had written out and turned the screen to face Zer0, scrolling using his ECHOeye. “Gortys still has another piece that can be attached to her, but we don’t know what will happen afterwards. All we know is that she’s meant to summon the Vault of the Traveler. Jack has ownership of Atlas, and the plan was to use Atlas as Vault research. I want to resurrect the old facilities and start combing them for information about Gortys and the Vault she’ll summon. She unfortunately doesn’t really know much more than us, and we really don’t want to dive into this blindly.”

_ “Continue.” _

Rhys swallowed nervously, “Atlas will need funding, which is where Hyperion comes in. I plan to continue weapons research, obviously, to fight whatever is in the Vault. But Hyperion will be moving away from Eridium mining --”

_ “Woah, woah, wait. When did we agree on that? Eridium is incredibly valuable, Rhys.” _

“I didn’t say we’d be stopping,” he said. “Just moving away from it. We’ve harvested plenty to get us by, that we can definitely slow down the rate of which we’re mining it. At this rate, we’re going to suck the planet dry. I’m trying to help Pandora. I want to establish schools and create more jobs. Funding education into Pandora is also a priority, and that will be coming from Hyperion directly. The overall goal is to make Pandora habitable for the people that live down there. It won’t be easy, and I might not ever see significant results in my lifetime, but if I can get the ball rolling… then it’ll be worth it.”

_ “Helios festers / Corruption is everywhere / Not an easy feat.” _

“No,” Rhys admitted, “It’s not going to be easy. Every day, something else pops up that needs weeded out, but I’m trying to run things here differently. Jack is just a business partner. I’ve restricted his access to the weapons and power subsystems, and he’s been receptive to the changes I’m trying to make. Despite his current crankiness which I think is more to do with the situation than anything.”

Jack grunted,  _ “It’s not every day you have to make a life or death deal with someone who’s already killed you. So, please, forgive me if I’m a little cranky. I think I’m allowed to be cranky.” _

“Fiona was going to be the Vault Hunter Hyperion hired to help get into the Vault. We were going to leave the loot for her and Hyperion would reap the… other benefits.”

_ “You want the knowledge.” _

“Yes, that’s what we want.”

_ “I seek the thrill of a hunt. Vaults are a true test.”  _ Zer0 shifted in his seat.  _ “I will tell Lilith and the others that you pose us no harm, and do what I can to keep her from hindering your business. In return, I want to be there when you open the Vault of the Traveler.” _

“You’ll help us?”

_ “You are helping me / The Traveler is mighty / I wish to conquer.” _

“That’s --”

_ “I will also train / Fiona needs some guidance / I will provide it.” _

“You’re going to train me?”

_ “Yes.” _

“I -- oh, wow. Thank you.” Zer0 flashed her a  _ <3 _ and turned back to Rhys.

_ “Consider us done / I will contact Lilith now / and explain you’re safe.” _

“Thank you, Zer0. Really. This is one of the best possible outcomes that we could have even hoped for.

_ “Tomorrow, Gortys. / For now, I need privacy / to make my phone call.” _

“Fiona and Loaderbot, could you take Zer0 to a guest suite? Fiona, you’re the only guest Helios is homing right now during this transitionary period, so any of the rooms beside you are free.” Fiona gave him a mock salute before gesturing for Zer0 to follow her. Loaderbot trailed after them and Rhys watched them go.

Jack was silent when Rhys spun the chair to face him. "You handled that pretty well, Jack. No temper tantrums or threatening anyone. I'm impressed."

_ "Yeah, well, call me cowardly but I don't want to die again so soon." _

"I don't think it's cowardly to value your life." He rested his jaw on a hand and looked over Jack carefully. "Do you think it's safe to end the lock down, then?"

_ "Zer0 is dangerous, but he does seem to be one of the more… honest of the Vault Hunters. He says he won't kill us all, so I don't see why we should continue with the lock down. But maybe wait until the morning, after he's done talking to those assholes on Pandora." _

"Good idea," he sighed. "I'm going to head to bed. See you later, Jack."

Rhys was restless all night, anxiety about the Crimson Raiders and the Gortys Project ate away at him. When his alarm finally went off, he sluggishly pulled himself out of his bed. Gortys rolled over to him, looking concerned. “You didn’t sleep well last night, Rhys. Is something bothering you?”

“No, just, had a lot on my mind. I, uh… Zer0 wants to meet you.”

“Yay! A new friend?”

“Uh, not -- not really a  _ friend _ . Just a temporary ally. He’ll keep the Vault Hunters off our backs, but I think he wants in on the Vault of the Traveler. Which, cool. Zer0 will be good help.”

“I can’t wait to meet him! He sounds cool!”

Rhys chuckled, “Yeah, he is.” 

The hours came and went. Zer0 had informed them that the Crimson Raiders had tentatively agreed to not attack Helios, but had made it clear that there would still be business to discuss. They introduced Gortys to Zer0, and after a while, they all fell into a routine. Zer0 was assisting with the Vault research, and had taken to training Fiona in his spare time. 

Rhys awoke on the seventh Pandoran day to Jack imitating the sound of a trumpet.  _ "Wakey wakey, Rhysie. You've got a very special morning with a lack of meetings!" _

Rhys grumbled and covered his head. "Exactly why I set my alarm for two hours later than usual so why are you waking me up at --" he activated his ECHOeye to check the time "-- two hours before I would even wake up usually?"

_ "Because, kiddo, Zer0 is going to train you on how to properly shoot a gun." _

"I know how to shoot a gun," Rhys said, sitting up. 

_ "Not like a Vault Hunter, you don't. I can think of no one better to teach you, besides myself but I unfortunately can't do much more than direct given my current state. So put on something comfortable and meet him in the shooting range." _

"Can I eat first?"

_ "You can eat when you're done. But I'll make sure there's a coffee for you to drink on the way down." _

Rhys sighed and got out of his bed to stumble over to the closet. Jack had been true to his promise of coffee, going so far as to have included a warm croissant that Rhys scarfed down hungrily. He finished his coffee just as he reached the shooting range, where Zer0 was standing with Loaderbot, who he had agreed to allow to be on his person at all times. Rhys waved to them as he tossed his coffee into the nearest trash. “Good morning, you two.”

**[GOOD MORNING]**

Zer0 flashed Rhys a smile on his helmet.  _ “Good morning to you / Did you get sufficient rest? / It is important.” _

“I uh, didn’t expect to be awake so early, but yeah. And you?”

_ “My rest was peaceful.” _ They stepped into the shooting range and Rhys surveyed the room. He hadn’t been in here yet. It was restricted access, unsurprisingly, Hyperion executives didn’t want the underlings knowing how to shoot guns. Frankly, right now, Rhys was compelled to agree.  _ “We will stick to a pistol,”  _ Zer0 said.  _ “Easiest to learn.” _

“I know how to shoot a pistol,” he told Rhys. “I don’t know what Jack’s told you, but I’m not incompetent. I can hit my target.”

_ “That is not enough. You must better understand. Guns are extensions.” _ He found the cases of pistols and pulled out a repeater pistol.  _ “Load the gun.” _

Rhys picked it up and carefully began to load the chamber. Zer0 lifted his hand to imitate the shape of a gun and ‘shot’ Rhys in the head.  _ “You are dead. Unload the gun.” _

Rhys frowned and emptied what he had gotten into the gun.

_ “Set it down, then pick it up and load it.” _

Rhys set it down and paused for a moment. He picked it up and began to load the chambers again, but Zer0 ‘shot’ him again. He set the gun down and looked up at the Vault Hunter. “I’m not capable of loading it that fast.”

Zer0 picked it up and emptied it. He set it down, and in almost a blink of an eye, he had it loaded and aimed at the target across the room.  _ “You are capable. It is about practicing / and dedication.” _ He handed the loaded gun to Rhys, who held it carefully.  _ “Do not fear the gun, it won’t do you any harm. You  _ should _ respect it.” _

Rhys swallowed and tried to get more comfortable with the gun in his hand. Holding it made him feel sick, and flashbacks of what he did to Kevin made him uneasy. “I don’t really want to shoot people,” he said.

_ “No shooting people? Would you rather they shoot you? This is important.” _

“I-I suppose you’re right. I just don’t really have the stomach for it.”

_ “With time you gain it.” _ The following hours of Rhys’ day were filled with Zer0 directing him on how to shoot, where to shoot, when to shoot. Zer0 was constantly correcting his posture, and giving him detailed explanations on how to hold the gun and his body, demonstrating for him. His arms were sore and his eyes hurt from focusing. His stomach growled loudly and he sighed. 

“I’m done for now. I need to eat and then get to work.”

_ “Same time tomorrow? Jack said he’d set your schedule. Daily practices.” _

“Ugh, I’m going to have to shoot guns first thing in the morning?”

_ “Yes,” _ Rhys could almost detect a hint of humour in Zer0’s tone, but the moment went by so quickly.  _ “See you around, Rhys,” _ Zer0 said with a wave before parting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haikus are hard and I hope yall don't disown me because I came up with some lame excuse to make it so I didn't have to type all of zer0's dialogue in haiku.


End file.
